Trails of Fists and Steel
by Hawkright-01121999
Summary: Xeron Rogner found Thors Military Academy to be interesting. An old schoolhouse that disobeyed just about every normal architectural law and design? New experimental tech being handed out like candy to a ticking time bomb that is Class VII? Perhaps this would be an interesting diversion... Rean x Harem (He's dense as shit like canon) Xeron x (to be decided)
1. Chapter 1

**Well, here we are, folks, with another story that I will probably put on indefinite hiatus after a while. I played through CS1 and CS2, and currently playing 3 and this had been on my mind for a while. I debated with doing an OC fic or a crossover fic with Archer or Emiya Shirou but unfortunately, I don't have much experience with crossover fics so here we are with another OC fic.**

**Enjoy.**

**Also, the first two sections are from the OC's view. Not POV cause it's third-person**

* * *

Thors Military Academy.

A military academy founded by Emperor Dreichels Reise Arnor in S.985 with the aim of fulfilling Dreichels' famous mandate "Arise, O Youth, and become the foundation of the world".

It was also situated in a quaint little town going by the name of Trista.

"Huh, would you look at that?" a purple-haired boy remarked as he stood by the only café in Trista, a hand over his shoulder carrying a rucksack while carrying a suitcase in the other to his side. "The lino flowers are in full bloom here. What a sight." he chuckled to himself before turning around and gave a searching gaze to the entrance of Trista Station.

"By Aidios' will, where'd Lisa disappear to-? Oh, there she is." he cut himself off as purple eyes found a blonde-haired girl exiting the station, similarly entranced by the blooming lino flowers. So entranced was she that she bumped into a black-haired boy and found herself on the stone pavement.

The purple-haired boy gave a small chuckle as he watched his friend stammer apologies to the black-haired boy. He did take a small note however that the black-haired teen was wearing the same red blazer as himself and Lisa.

After the debacle between the two finished with the black-haired boy helping her up, the purple-haired boy watched on in amusement as the blonde-haired girl's ruby-orbs fell upon his form. He could already feel the annoyance radiating from her.

"Xeron…!" she whisper-growled at the purple-haired boy who merely chuckled good-naturedly while looking down at her, being a good head and a bit taller than her.

"I see you're already getting acquainted with our new classmates," Xeron spoke with a smirk, "Miss _Alisa Reinford…_" he whispered out the last part, knowing full well how it'd get to her.

"A-Ahhh!" Alisa stammered while using her hands to cover Xeron's mouth before he could continue any further. After ensuring no one had heard, she glared at her friend. "I told you not to call me that- ew!" she whispered vehemently before recoiling in disgust, looking at her newly salivated hands.

Xeron shook his head, short purple hair barely long enough to be called locks in the loosest sense of the word swaying as he did so. "I don't understand why you're so worried, Sharon's gonna turn up sooner or later you know that right?" he said but nonetheless shrugged his shoulders, "But alright, I won't say another word. Here."

He lifted his hand, holding out the brown suitcase in it.

Alisa hmphed and took her suitcase for the proffered hand before storming ahead leaving Xeron to look after her in minor amounts of dismay and amusement.

"I wonder when she'll actually figure out Irina's one of the directors here?" he wondered aloud but quietly enough that no one would overhear before taking off after her.

"Lisa! Wait up!"

* * *

After finally getting Alisa to open up, the two continued their way to Thors.

"So, this is Thors?" Xeron muttered, taking in the scenery with Alisa doing the same. "Looks pretty good and solid for a place that's been standing since the time Emperor Driechels founded it."

"No kidding, it doesn't seem like it would look out of place in Heimdallr or even Roer," Alisa responded, looking at the impressively tall building made up Thors Campus' main building.

Xeron gave her a queer look. "Really? I can understand Heimdallr but Roer? Are we even thinking about the same place here? Hometown? Made of steel and iron? Looks like someone decided to take a jigsaw puzzle and use it as the design of the whole city?"

Alisa glared at him. "You know what I meant!"

"I did, but I find amusement in doing the things I do."

"Welcome to Thors Military Academy!" a high-pitched voice piped up causing Xeron to look around in confusion.

Alisa looked up at her friend while giving an apologetic look to the petite girl before her, the one who'd been welcoming them but stopped when she'd noticed Xeron looking around for her, herself being far beneath his notice. Literally.

Grabbing his chin, she pulled downwards and brought his line of sight to the petite brown-haired girl standing before the two along with a chubby teen in a yellow jumpsuit situated behind the petite girl.

"Hello there! My name is Towa Herschel!" the petite girl introduced herself while the teen waved a hand and gave a friendly grin as well. "The name's George."

The diminutive girl, because otherwise how else could Xeron describe her other than being absolutely adorable, coughed into her hands bringing their attention to her. "Seeing as the two of you have red uniforms, would it be possible to get your names?"

"I'm Alisa. Alisa R. of Roer." Alisa introduced herself causing Towa to scrunch her brows adorably in confusion. "Alisa? That would make you Alisa Rein- Oh… I see." Towa seemed to figure out something before giving a determined nod.

"You know who she is?" Xeron asked, a slight tenseness to his shoulders as he looked at both Towa and George. As far as he knew, random first-years shouldn't be in the business of knowing who Alisa was.

George seemed to notice the tenseness in the teens' shoulders before giving a calming wave. "Ah, Towa's the Student Council President around here. She's just trying to make sure everyone's situated properly." George explained, much to Towa's embarrassment.

Alisa and Xeron's eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.

'_Well, scratch that, seems she's a second-year then.'_ Xeron thought in mild surprise. Towa turned to him.

"And you would be?" she asked tentatively, causing Xeron to loosen his shoulders noticeably as he realised he may have been making her uncomfortable with how strung he was.

Xeron gave a warm, apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. The name's Xeron. Xeron R. of Roer." he finished, while giving a cheeky grin to Alisa, taking a page from her introduction.

"Oh? Angie's little brother?" Towa blinked in surprise causing both Alisa and Xeron to do the same.

"You know my sister?" Xeron was surprised.

"Mhmm! George and I have been friends with her since our first year." Towa nodded.

"Yeah, she has been talking lately about how her adorable little brother would finally be attending Thors," George chimed in with a little grimace.

Xeron let out a sigh. "Of course, she has."

Towa and Alisa giggled while George scratched the back of his head.

George's eyes opened back up. "You two are among the earlier of the group though, we'll also be needing to take your weapons for a short time," he said while glancing at the bag Alisa held and the one over Xeron's shoulders.

"The guidebook said something about that, didn't it?" Alisa muttered while Xeron gave a hum in agreement before she handed over her suitcase.

George took it gratefully while looking at Xeron.

Xeron, on the other hand, used his free hand to withdraw something from his back pocket before handing it over to George.

Towa and George looked at it.

A pair of black leather gloves.

"Of course…" George's spirit seemed to disappear while Towa gave a nervous laugh. Shaking their heads, the two got back on track. "Well we should be able to return these before long so the two of you will hardly even notice their gone."

"The entrance ceremony is going to be held in the auditorium. It's the building to the west of the main building. Just follow the road and instead of entering the main building, turn left and it'll be the building straight ahead." Towa said with a smile, her previous nervousness nowhere to be seen.

"Thanks."

"Thank you so much!" Alisa bowed gratefully.

"I hope you enjoy your first day at Thors." Towa smiled.

"We're glad to have you. I hope these next two yours will prove a fruitful time for both of you." George nodded with a smile.

Before the two could leave, however, Towa asked one last question. "Um… if you don't mind me asking… what's in your bag?"

"Hmmm?" Xeron hummed as he looked back at her. "These are my clothes. Why?"

"We should probably take that then, it'll be a while before you'll be able to put these in your dorms and you probably won't want them to get dirty. Here, I'll take them for you. You'll find them later in your dorms." Towa replied before taking Xeron's bag before the duo tottered off.

…

"Well that wasn't worrying or anything," Xeron muttered with sarcasm causing Alisa to roll her eyes.

"Come on you, we have an entrance ceremony to get to."

* * *

"Now if I may, I'd like to say a few words in closing about this academy's illustrious history." The principal of Thors, Vandyck, booming voice echoes throughout the auditorium.

"Thors Military Academy was founded almost 220 years ago. It's founders, as I'm sure you're all well aware, was none other than the great Emperor Driechels…" Principal Vandyck continued onwards.

Xeron had to admit, for a principal, even for a military academy, Principal Vandyck was absolutely built. He looked like he could go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest warriors in Erebonia and come out on top. And damn, as a man, he couldn't say he wasn't even slightly jealous of how titanically broad the elderly man's shoulder were.

"The very same Emperor who ended the war of the lions and returned prosperity to the Erebonian Empire. Thirty years later after becoming Emperor, in the later years of his life, he opened the doors of the institution. It was to be a place where young people like yourselves could learn the art of war." Vandyck's voice continued booming. "But with the mechanizations of the military, many of our graduates now pursue careers outside the army."

Now _that_ piqued Xeron's interest.

He wasn't even aware that students from Thors could do that. This was a military institution, after all, it was surprising that students were able to get into other fields with having the required accreditations. "Probably, because this is Thors. Who wouldn't want a student from this place?" Xeron muttered earning him a sharp elbow jab to the ribs from Alisa, cutting off his mutterings swift and quietly.

"Our mission, however, remains the same: to prepare our students to fulfill Emperor Dreichels' famous mandate…" Vandyck leaned forward with both hands resting on the podium. "' Arise, O youth, and become the foundation of the world.' Though much has happened these past two and a quarter centuries, the world is still the domain of the young."

Xeron had to admit that there was something strikingly inspirational about the famous mandate.

"Yet still the questions remains: what qualities must one possess to become part of its foundation? I hope this credo will serve as a guide and an inspiration to you during your two years at this academy. Go forth, my students. The world awaits the great things you will one day accomplish."

As everyone brought their hands together in applause, Xeron could spy the black-haired boy that Alisa had crashed into earlier conversing with an orange-haired boy further in front, the red-headed boy wearing a similar red uniform. Counting all the people in the hall that wore the red uniform revealed that there was a total of ten students at most out of the almost fifty-ish first years.

As Principal Vandyck stepped down from his place at the podium, a… well the only way Xeron could really describe him was weasel-faced. The weasel-faced man stepped up to where the principal had stepped down and concluded the entrance ceremony.

He concluded with "And that brings us to the close of Thors' two-hundred and fifteenth entrance ceremony. Next, please proceed to the class designated in your guidebook. There, you will go over the school rules, as well as your class' curriculum. That is all. Dismissed!"

"Our guidebooks didn't say anything about our class though?" Alisa questioned, Xeron nodding along in acknowledgment.

"Considering how everyone else in red looks confused, I'll bet five-hundred mira that we'll all be together in a new class or something," Xeron nodded his head at the others, specifically the students in red that mostly sported similar looks of confusion or in the case of a blonde male and a silver-haired female, looks of boredom.

The ruby-eyed girl shook her head while giving her friend a rueful smile. "No bet, knowing your luck, you'll be right."

Xeron merely shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Pretty obvious when they put me and you together. Nobles and commoners aren't supposed to be in the same class. Considering blondie and blue-hair are also here, it's safe to assume this is probably a new class or something."

"That makes sense at least."

"Or this could all be one giant joke and we all failed the entrance exam and this is how they tell students that they haven't been accepted."

Alisa's eyes deadpanned at him.

"Hey, just keeping the scenarios open here. You never know. It could happen." Xeron defended himself.

"Right…"

The two were cut off as a pink-haired woman in a yellow dress that showed a questionable amount of cleavage and a blue overcoat stepped forward and got the remaining students' attention. "All riiight! Students in red uniforms, if I can have your attention, please?"

Everyone turned to face her simultaneously.

"By now, you're probably all confused. 'Where's MY class assignment?', you're all probably wondering. That's perfectly understandable – your situation is a liiiiiitle more complicated than the other students'." she explained. "But before I explain, I'd like all of you to join me for a special orienteering exercise." she finished while coking a hand on her hip.

"What?" a green-haired boy asked sounding aghast.

Alisa also spoke up, visibly confused. "Did you mean an orientation exercise?"

"Is 'orienteering' an actual word?" Xeron actually wondered. He couldn't really say he'd ever heard the word before used in any context. He also heard blue-hair hum to herself.

"Worry not! Everything will be made clear soon enough!" she said before giving Xeron a small look, "Also 'orienteering' is indeed a word. Now right this way, if you would." she finished before walking out the door.

"Huh, the more you know." Xeron mused to himself.

"E-Erm…" a pink-haired girl tittered in confusion while a tall seemingly Nordic boy spoke up. "It seems we'll need to follow her if we want any answers."

Blondie at the back sighed audibly.

"Well follow-onwards then we shall and all that good stuff," Xeron muttered as he stood up and made to follow the procession of red students, Alisa doing the same leaving the black-haired and orange-haired boys behind.

* * *

Rean Schwarzer had been expecting many things when he'd come to attend Thors Military Academy. Not amongst them was have an orienteering exercise in what seemed to be an old schoolhouse that looked like it could collapse at a solid hit to its foundations.

"Wh-What IS this place…?" his new friend, Elliot Craig asked nervously as the group of red-clad students stopped before the building.

Rean had to agree. "Why is there a building this dilapidated on campus? It looks like it should have been torn down ages ago," Rean wondered as well as the pink-haired instructor who seemed more than content to continue into the building, humming all the while.

…

"So… creepy old building in the middle of a forest behind a famous school? This sounds like the start of some either good or terrible horror play," a tall-purple haired boy spoke up from beside the blonde-haired girl Rean had bumped into earlier.

"I'd doubt anything like what you're thinking of is going to happen," the blonde-haired chided the purple-haired boy, "But I can't help but wonder what she even wants us to do here?"

A bespectacled teen with green hair beside the two shook his head in grievance. "Gah… is she ever going to tell us what's going on?!"

"Probably not," the purple-haired boy replied to the obviously rhetoric question with a shrug.

"I suppose we'll just have to go inside and see for ourselves what awaits us," a calm blue-haired girl said with a tone of acceptance before moving forward.

"I for one think this is a terrible idea, but why not?" the purple-haired boy spoke while walking forward. "What's the worst that could happen?"

'_You shouldn't say that…_' Rean thought to himself while sweatdropping.

It seemed that someone else had the same idea and wasn't afraid to say it aloud.

"You shouldn't say that!" the blonde girl from earlier swatted him on the shoulder, to which the purple-haired boy laughed it off.

"I know I know, but if I'm gonna be going out, I'd rather at least deserve it one way or another." he chuckled as they both walked in with the other students.

"W-Well those two are certainly quite the pair," Elliot laughed even more nervously, the teens' words obviously stoking some fears. "Th-This place _does_ look like some old haunted mansion or something…"

Rean nodded in agreement. _'I think this is everyone I've seen with a red uniform so far. I guess we really ARE part of the same class, then…'_ Rean couldn't help but think before the two followed behind them.

* * *

On a plateau overlooking the old schoolhouse, two teens watched as the last of Class VII walked in.

"So, these are our new underclassmen huh?" a bandanaed boy asked curiously, watching them with his arms crossed.

"Yup. They've got a different set of hoops to jump through than we did, though." a leather-clad girl nodded. "I'm just happy all our work's paying off. I'd gate to have put in a year's worth of effort for nothing."

"Heh. Ain't that the tru—" the bandanaed boy stopped mid-chuckle as he looked incredulously over at his friend. "…Wait, what did YOU do any work? You were just slacking off the whole time!"

"Hah, coming from the master slacker!" the girl gave a bark of laughter before turning back to the old schoolhouse. "Still, looks like Alisa's got some stiff competition. Quite a bevy of beauties they've got here. And I'm looking forward to getting intimately acquainted with each and every one of them," she said with a heavy blush. "Oh, and saying hi to Ronnie again, been a bit since I've seen him."

"You know two of 'em?" the bandanaed boy seemed slightly surprised before her earlier words caught up with him. "…Er, wait, no, no! Not these ones too! Stop flirting with every damned girl you lay eyes on! Do you have any idea how many guys at this school have gotten their hearts broken because of your libido?!"

The leather-clad girl just chuckled. "Heh heh… and to answer your question, I know the blonde girl and the purple-haired one."

The bandanaed boy seemed slightly taken aback. "Okay, the blonde-haired girl I can understand, but the guy?"

The leather-clad girl just gave him a look before pointing to her own purple hair.

Dawning realisation fell upon the teen's face. "Ooooh, so that's your lil' bro. I see you've got your priorities straight though." He jabbed causing the leather-clad girl to shrug helplessly in a 'what can you do?' fashion. "Huh… he's nothing like you… right?" he asked hesitantly and got a disappointed sigh in return.

"No, unfortunately. Not for a lack of trying, but he's too much of a good boy to be like me," she shook her head. "If he tried though he'd certainly wouldn't be wanting. I can name a few girls back home who'd be more than happy to get with him."

Two pairs of feet walking upon grass reached their ears as Towa and George came up behind the two. "Sorry, we're late!" Towa apologised with a small blush of embarrassment.

"Well, look who finally made it. Nice work you two." the leather-clad girl greeted.

"You got out little chickadees all sorted out, I take it?" the boy asked Towa who responded in turn in affirmation.

"Yup! They're all bright-eyed and ready to go. So, from here on out we're going to have to give it all we've got to support this fledgling class!" she said eagerly.

The purple-haired girl chuckled at Towa's enthusiasm. "You're certainly sounding like a Student Council President."

"She's really going all-in with this bunch ain't she?" the bandanaed boy grinned.

"Well, they'd certainly be in a pretty rough spot if we didn't help out a little. At least to start with anyway." George added on. "Everything's ready over there, right?" he asked.

"You betcha. Just like the instructor asked," the purple-haired girl replied. "Can't help but feel a little sorry for them though."

"Same here. They've no idea what they're being tossed into," the bandanaed boy agreed. "The class they're in didn't even exist before this year. Guess we'll just need to see what they're made of, right?"

"All the more reason why we all have to help out. Especially you two, Crow and Angelica. Can't be having the two of you slacking off," George reminded causing the two to laugh.

"That gives me even more reason to slack off," the bandanaed boy, Crow, grinned.

Angelica on the other hand grinned. "If it means getting closer to those beauties, I'm all in."

"Okay maybe not you, Angie," George took back.

* * *

Xeron looked around the old dilapidated building. "You know for a building this old, I have to admit it's really clean. If it had some lights or something, it honestly wouldn't be too bad to use," he mused as he looked around but stopped as he saw the pink-haired instructor walk up the stairs into a platform while everyone stayed below.

"The name's Sara Valestein," the instructor, Sara, introduced. "I'm the instructor in charge of Class VII, which means you get the pleasure of seeing me all year. Glad to finally meet you!" she smiled cheerily.

"Wait… Class VII…?!" the bespectacled boy asked.

"U-Us…?"

"I'm not sure I understand. I wasn't told anything about this enrolment." Blue-hair stated all too calmly.

"E-Excuse me, Instructor Sara?" a bespectacled and um… ahem… _blessed_ girl asked tentatively. "I was under the impression that there were only five classes at this academy and that students were split among them based on their social class and home region."

"Right you are, Miss Top Scorer on the Thors entrance exam!" Instructor Sara said causing Xeron to give a small impressed whistle.

So, this was the girl who scored ninety-eight on the entrance exam? Pretty impressive considering Xeron himself scored ninety-five and came tied third.

"Students in each year are divided into five classes: two for the nobility, and three for the commoners. It's been that way for ages, right up through last year. but this year, we decided to shake things up a little." Instructor Sara said.

"Wh-What do you…?" the top scorer on the Thors entrance exam stammered questioningly.

"We now have a sixth class. Fittingly titled…" Sara paused briefly for dramatics before continuing, "Class VII. And in Cass VII, we recognize no distinction between nobles and commoners."

"Hehe, called it," Xeron whispers to Alisa who just rolled her eyes.

"Wait you're just jumping from V to VII?" the black-haired boy asked curiously.

"Is it really a good idea to be putting nobles and commoners into the same class?" the orange-haired boy beside him asked nervously.

"This must be some kind of joke!" an irate voice yelled. Turning back to look, Xeron found it was the bespectacled green-haired boy. "And why is this the first I've heard of it?"

"Is he a noble?" Alisa asked Xeron curiously who only shrugged in return.

"If he is, he's definitely not one I've heard of before."

Sara looked incredibly uncomfortable now. "Well, uh… errr… Who were you again?" she asked shamelessly.

"Machias Regnitz!" he replied. "And with all due respect, Instructor, it's ludicrous to intermix nobles and commoners like this! Must I be forced to spend my next two years should to shoulder with those arrogant, stuck-up hedonists?!"

"Regnitz? Does that ring any bells for you?" Alisa asked now that she had a name to put to the face.

Xeron muttered affirmatively. "Yeah, but in the complete opposite direction. Regnitz is the name of the Imperial Governor, and the first commoner to hold the title. Carl Regnitz. Also, you really need to keep up with your current news," he advised causing Alisa to turn up her head.

"W-Well, not everyone can be like you and do everything," she muttered causing Xeron to roll his own eyes in turn.

"Un. You DO know I'm not the one who made the decision right?" Instructor Sara asked. "Besides, what's the big deal, anyway? You're all kids. Can't you all just… get along or something?"

"J-Just… get along?! Hah! And how do you propose we do that?" he asked.

Blondie on the other gave a snort of amusement causing Machias to round on him. "…What are you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing much, I just find the irony of your behavior rather humorous," Blondie admitted calmly.

"Is that so? It seems the scion of some noble house has left the comfort of his mansion to grace the unwashed masses with his wisdom!" Machias regaled sarcastically. "Please, milord, do share your esteemed name with us so I can give you all the respect you deserve."

"Jusis Albarea." Blondie turned to him unimpressed but nonetheless acquiesced. "Not that I'd expect the name of an arrogant, stuck-up hedonist to lodge itself in that hard head of yours."

Machias took a step back in shock.

"H-He's from one of the Four Great Houses," Orange muttered in shock as well.

"The son of Duke Albarea, lord of the Kreuzen province in the southeast…" the black-haired one chimed in.

"Well you don't really get much more noble than that," Alisa added to which Xeron couldn't resist the urge to give a retort of his own.

"You're forgetting House Cayenne," Xeron reminded getting another eye-roll.

"Interesting. I'd heard the rumours…" Blue-hair murmured to herself to the back.

Tiny Silver just yawned.

"D-Do you expect me to be impressed?!" It seemed that Machias had finally gotten his wits about him as he lashed out against Jusis. "Your family lineage means nothing to me! I'll never bend my knee to the likes of-"

"Okay, okay, that's enough!" Instructor Sara interrupted with a clap of her hands. Causing everyone sans Machias to turn towards her, said boy still glaring daggers towards the scion of Albarea. "I'm sure a couple of you have a few grievances, but now's not the time. I'll hear your complaints later. Right now, you've got your orienteering exercise, and far be it from me to keep you from our fun little icebreaker."

"Ghuh…" Machias grunted before finally turning to face the instructor while Ailsa rose her hand.

"You mentioned this… 'orienteering exercise' earlier? What exactly does that involve?" she asked?

The bespectacled girl gave her own two mira to the question. "It's a form of outdoor competition, isn't it? Something like a cross between a map-reading exercise and a scavenger hunt?"

It was the black-haired one that asked a question that got Xeron's attention. "Is that why they asked us to hand over our weapons by the gate?" he asked curiously causing Sara to smile.

"Nothing gets by you, does it?" she asked while taking several steps back to a small pillar. "Buuuuuut I don't want to spoil the fun, so let's get started, shall we?" she sang cheerily before pressing a button.

The ground shook as the world turned monochrome.

Around him, Xeron saw as indentations formed along the ground in lines as the floor beneath them gave way at a snail's pace. Without giving it much thought he took a few steps forward out of the way of the descending slope as time resumed its course and the floor gave way entirely faster than most of the other students could react.

"Ahhhhh!"

He turned around and faced-palm.

"Sorry Alisa!" he called out as he watched Alisa slide down slowly but still screaming the way down.

Whoops.

It seemed he hadn't needed to worry too much though as the black-haired boy from the train station became the knight in red-uniform and jumped after her.

"Ha!"

On the other hand, it seemed like Tiny Silver had used a grappling hook to grab onto one of the steel support beams high above them, reacting quick enough to make an escape for the sudden pitfall.

"Phew…" Tiny Silver gave a sigh of relief.

"Come on, Fie. No cheating. You're going with them, and that's that." Instructor Sara called out causing Xeron to look over, very lightly alarmed as he saw the throwing knife in her hands. "What's the point in having an icebreaker if you don't make a couple new friends?" she asked before throwing the knife at the grappling hook line.

Tiny Silver, Fie, it seems her name was, gave a sigh as she floated suspended for a moment before gravity decided to re-exert itself and pull her down. "Lame…" she sighed out as she fell.

Purple eyes met lime-green, Xeron giving a friendly wave as she fell to which she gave a nod in return before disappearing into the depths below.

"Oh, someone still here?" the instructor's voice called out causing Xeron to look up at the platform to which Sara was leaning over.

"Hey," Xeron nodded. "I don't suppose I can just take the stairs or something could I?"

Sara laughed a bit. "Afraid I can't play favourites. Now get in there before I kick you in."

"I was afraid you'd say something along those lines." Xeron gave a disappointed sigh before shrugging off his blazer. "I'm sending you the bill for my blazer after this!" he called out as he walked over to the very edge of the hole.

"Huh?" came Sara's unintelligible reply.

Xeron didn't say anything but merely jumped down the hole, using his blazer as a makeshift slide.

"Wait… what?!"

* * *

With a muted thump, Xeron fell feet-first onto the ground right beside Tiny Silver.

"I can't believe I fell for such an obvious trap." Blue-hair was muttering as he landed with Tiny Silver sighing.

Dusting himself he looked around and saw that Orange was still getting up.

"Phew! I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest…" Orange muttered. "Hey, Rean are you o-kay?" he stopped for a moment as he noticed the predicament his friend was in.

Needless to say, Xeron, also found out the predicament Alisa was in.

'Rean', the black-haired boy, was lying on the ground with his hand very visibly in the air. The reason for this was because he had 0.0020 Torim's worth of Alisa on him with his head between her boobs. Even as much of a good friend as he was, and Xeron would break bones of whoever would touch her like that, it was hard to be angry considering it was Alisa on top and this 'Rean' seemed to be doing his level best not to anything inappropriate.

It seemed though it didn't really matter as Alisa was already stirring to the realms of the living.

"Rrrg… What… happened…? Alisa muttered as her eyes fluttered open, immediately noticing the boy between her chest. "Huh…? Hhh!" she squeaked with a blush on her face.

"Mrph… well, this is a bit awkward…" Rean said, well, more murmured as his words were currently being muffled by twin mounds of flesh which were swiftly removed as their owner stood up and backed away.

Xeron could already see the atomic blush on her face, which grew even worse as Rean got up and stepped forward to begin apologising. "Yeah… I'm really sorry about that…" Rean apologised, "Still, I'm just glad you're okay. That's what's really important here, ri-?"

SMACK!

Xeron and every other male in the vicinity winced as Alisa's hand came rising up and connecting with the boy's cheek in a display of embarrassing feminine fury.

Man, what a way to start the year huh?

* * *

**Well, here we are with the first chapter of whatever the fuck this is. Read, review and all that jazz.**

**If anyone wants a mental picture of Xeron, imagine like a slightly buffer and taller version of Cedric Riese Arnor in Trails of Cold Steel III but with shorter purple hair and eyes, and a more masculine face closer to that of Crow.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well here we are folks with the second chapter of ToFaS, with a provisionary title since I'm terrible at titles.**

**Also I just finished CS3 and found out that there are seven divine knights and just thought to myself, well fuck, there goes like 50% of this story but then went "wait a minute, this is an AU! I can do whatever the fuck I want!"**

**So yeah, don't expect things to stay the same. Of course, by that standard, this story will follow a majority of the main plotline till around the final chapter of CS1 along with CS2 and CS3. Hint Hint.**

* * *

"Wow… it's just not your day is it?" Elliot chuckled nervously as Rean cradled his reddening cheek, the newly formed Class VII all spaced out, standing awkwardly.

Rean let out a sigh. "Well, now that I've hit rock bottom, thing can only go up from here… I hope," he replied, still rubbing his sore cheek, the pain ebbing away but undoubtedly leaving a red handprint behind to commemorate his venture from male fantasy into reality.

Actually deciding to take a look around, Rean noticed that the room they were in was quite large, large enough to comfortably fit about six Achtzen-class armored tanks with pedestals spread evenly around the perimeter of the room, atop them a case for almost all of them, ten pedestals in total. "What is this place anyway?" Rean wondered aloud.

"I was wondering the same thing. We should check out those tables-" Elliot tried to reply but was cut off as a ringing sound resounded throughout the room catching everyone's attention. "W-Wha?" Elliot sputtered nonsensically.

"Is this…?" Rean asked as he heard the sound come from behind him while the pocket he'd placed the device given to him alongside the guidebook vibrated. Beside him, everyone else withdrew a similar device.

"It's coming from the devices we received with the academy guidebook…" the bespectacled girl muttered confirming that everyone else got it the same way he had.

"It seems to be some sort of… portable orbment." the blue-haired girl commented.

Much to Rean's surprise, a voice actually seemed to respond back. "Right you are! These handy little devices are a special kind of battle orbment."

The tall boy with tanned skin vocalized his surprised in a calm manner. "Is that… Ms. Valestein?" he asked.

"So, these devices have built-in communications functionality, then…?" Rean heard Machias asked.

"A battle orbment that has built-in communications systems? Through 20 arges of concrete underground that's quality is clear as crystal?" the purple-haired boy asked from beside the blonde-girl who slapped him. "These seem far above the current fourth-generation battle orbments that've just only now hit military-use."

Rean was surprised at that. Last he'd heard, the military was still using third-generation battle orbments staring eight months ago.

"Wait!" the blonde-girl asked surprised, "Don't tell me these are…"

"… new-model battle orbments made through a partnership between the Epstein Foundation and Reinford Company." Ms. Valestein confirmed. "And it seems like one of you was correct. These are the newly-made fifth-generation battle orbments. These little beauties are known as the All-Round Communication and Unison System, fittingly titled as Arcus units."

"ARCUS…" Rean tested out the name on his tongue.

"Surprise, surprise," the purple-haired boy muttered. "Reinford just started fielding their contracts for fourth-gen orbments but turns out they've already developed the tech for fifth-gens." Rean silently tucked away that information for later. Already he could tell the purple-haired boy would be a fount of information regarding orbments in the future.

"So, these are battle orbments…" the bespectacled girl muttered. "That means they'll allow us to use arts, right?"

"Sure will! Just set a quartz into one of its slots, and you can use are all the livelong day." Ms. Valestein confirmed cheerily. "…Which is why I've prepared enough quartz for each and every one of you."

Just as she finished, lights switched on around the room allowing the group of ten to see better with the improved lighting. In addition to the various cases upon each pedestal, there was also a tiny lockbox for each. "The weapons you brought are all here too, each packaged neatly alongside a little box containing a quartz." Ms. Valestein explained, "Find yours, and try setting the quartz into your ARCUS."

A moment passed as everyone gave each other a glance before the blue-haired girl seemed to take the lead. "I suppose it can't hurt to try…" she hummed before walking off to presumably her own case. The silver-haired diminutive girl followed her lead and walked off silently.

"Ugh… what on earth is this woman thinking?" Machias muttered to himself before walking off and doing the same, Jusis following suite with a quiet grunt of annoyance.

"Hmmm… mine is…" Rean hummed to himself as he scanned the room for his weapon before his eyes fell upon a comfortingly familiar long purple wrapping. "That one."

"Oh, I see mine ever there. Let me just go grab it, okay?" Elliot asked, Rean giving a nod in return.

Guess it was time to get his weapon back.

* * *

"Couldn't they have just let me keep my gloves?" Xeron wondered as he walked over to the only pedestal without a case, finding his leather gloves sitting there behind the small lockbox. It took all of two seconds to put his gloves on, the black leather reaching just one rege short of his wrist but wouldn't be coming off easily without a struggle. After ensuring his gloves were on comfortably, he moved his attention to the lockbox.

Honestly, there was nothing interesting about the lockbox, just a regular cast-iron box with an unlocked lock. What was interesting was its contents. Within Xeron's lockbox was a small purple-black orb with a golden quadrupedal figure, some sort of two-tailed cat etched into its surface.

"A Master Quartz?" Xeron murmured to himself as he held it up to one of the lights for inspection. "And a Katze one at that? These things go for around 10000 Mira a pop, why in Aidios' name are they giving them to cadets?" he wondered.

"Those are what are known as 'Master Quartz'," Instructor Sara's voice rung out from his ARCUS, and judging by the fact he could hear it multiple times over, this was a shared communication line that everyone else was getting. "If you set that into the large slot in the center of your ARCUS, you'll be able to use arts. Go on, give it a try you lot!" she finished with a cheer.

Shrugging, Xeron popped the Katze Master Quartz into his ARCUS, a blue light blooming into existence from his chest that shone in tandem with a light pulsing from the ARCUS unit within his hand. "The synch efficiency rates with these little guys are high. No need to do an aptitude test or anything," Xeron muttered to himself, noticing that a similar occurrence was happening with everyone else, not a single one failing to synch with their units.

_Very_ unusual for a battle orbment to have a ten-out-of-ten synch success rate.

"That blue light means that you've successfully synchronized with your ARCUS. Congratulation. Now you can use arts as much as you want." Instructor Sara said. "These ARCUS units have plenty more nifty features… but I wouldn't want to bombard you with too much info all at once, so we'll cover those another time."

'_Yeah, like finding out fifth-generation battle orbments are currently in our hands while the Imperial army just got green-lighted for the new-to-the-market fourth-generation orbments isn't an info dump all on its own,'_ Xeron mentally snarked.

"Aaaaanyway, since you've all got your ARCUS all set up and ready to go, here's what I want you to do." Instructor Sara continued, pausing for a moment as the door at the other end of the room rumbled open. "When you step through that door, you'll be in an underground testing area. Basically… it's a dungeon. It's pretty large, and full of twist and turns. I'd almost guarantee you'll get lost at least once," she said cheerily. "But when you find the exit, you'll be able to return to the first floor of this old schoolhouse. There ARE monsters wandering around, though, so don't let your guard down even for a moment!"

The last part certainly piqued Xeron's interest. Perhaps this wouldn't be as boring of an orientation as he'd been expecting.

"With all that being said, let's commence our special orienteering exercise! Your objective is to make your way through this area and back to the surface. Make it back in one piece and I'll be happy to field any complaints you might have." she said. Xeron couldn't help but feel like she was expecting some of Class VII to _not_ make it back in one piece.

"If you make it back safely, I might even give you a kiss, free of charge! …On the cheek, of course." she tacked on at the end sultrily before the ARCUS gave a crackle and the communication shut off.

* * *

"If you make it back safely, I might even give you a kiss, free of charge! …On the cheek, of course." Rean listened as Ms. Valestein finished with a crackle of the ARCUS.

"U-Uum…" Elliot tittered nervously as everyone gathered around.

"…I don't think she's joking." the blonde girl said. Beside her, the purple-haired boy rose a brow.

"About the kiss or the fact we might not make it out in piece?"

"About this being our orienteering exercise! Why are you such a fool?!" she half-yelled, swatting his shoulder.

Seeing their level of familiarity with each other, Rean would never vocally admit it, but he was slightly nervous at the idea of being alone in the same room as the purple-haired teen.

Off to the side Jusis gave a humph before beginning to walk off, catching the ire of Machias for merely existing.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Machias asked aggrieved. "Were you just planning to wander off on your own without telling anyone?!"

Jusis turned to him, a hand on his hip as if he was disappointed Machias was even bothering to ask. "I have no interest in becoming friends with anyone here. And I'm surprised that you, of everyone here, gives a damn about what I do." Jusis remarked, "…Unless you've suddenly decided you DO want to keep company with one of those 'stuck-up hedonists' after all…"

Machias bristled at that, his form tensing as if he was considering lunging at the noble teen.

"Still, if you're afraid of the monsters, I suppose I could accompany you." Jusis continued. "After all, what kind of Erebonian noble would a be if I didn't at least have some degree of prowess with a sword? And noblesse oblige dictates it's my sacred duty to protect powerless commoners such as yourself."

With those words said, Dam Machias proceeded to overflow and burst.

"Wh-What the hell?! Nobody's asking your high excellency to DEIGN to help us!" he yelled before walking forward, pausing just ahead of Jusis and before the entranceway. "But if that's how you're going to be, I'll just… find my way out of here before you! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself without some relic of an outdated class system dragging me down!" he finished with a huff, making his way further into the dungeon-esque basement.

"Tch…" Jusis tsked before heading inwards as well.

…

"Well aren't those two just bundles of sunshine?" the purple-haired teen remarked into the silence while taking a few steps forward. "Buuuut those two do have the right idea about getting out of here, so let's sally onwards and all that good stuff, yeah?" he said with a smile as he followed the twos lead and made his way in.

Rean and Elliot gaped as they watched him just stroll away without a care in the world, similar expressions on everyone else's face except for the silver-haired girl he merely yawned.

The blonde-haired girl seemed to snap out of her gaping before she ran forward after the teen. "Wait up! Slow down!" she yelled as she chased after the teen who'd already turned the corner.

"Um…" Elliot said awkwardly.

"What should WE do…?" the bespectacled girl asked nervously as she looked around at the remaining students.

"The only thing we CAN do. We should begin exploring these ruins ourselves." the blue-haired girl responded calmly. "I believe it would be prudent to remain in small groups, however."

"Would the two of you have any objections accompanying me?" she asked both the bespectacled girl and the petite silver-haired girl.

The bespectacled girl nodded gratefully. "It would be a huge help actually."

"And how about… you?" Laura made to ask the shorter girl only to find her gone. Looking around proved her to already be heading in after the other four. "…I suppose that would be a no. Perhaps we'll meet her and the other along the way and we can reconvene with everyone then."

"We shall be off then," she said turning to the three remaining boys. "I'm certain you gentlemen will be fine, but do take care."

Rean finally found his voice after the awkward turn of events. "O-Okay." he said, the blue-haired girl walking away with the bespectacled girl bowing to the three with a quiet "If you'll excuse us, please." before catching up with the blue-haired girl.

…

"Well that was a quick turn of events," Rean spoke up to fill the silence. "I don't suppose the two of you would be averse to working together, would you? Working together seems like a better option than working alone."

"Sounds good to me." Elliot agreed. "I'd get pretty anxious around a place like this alone."

The tall boy with a dark complexion agreed as well. "No objections here. I'd be happy to accompany you."

"That's great." Rean said, "I hope everyone else will be okay."

* * *

"Why did you head off like that?!" Alisa screeched, Xeron wincing slightly as it resounded loudly in the cavernous basement. Xeron just shrugged at her question.

"Would you believe me if I said I wanted to go a punch some monsters?" Xeron fielded a question causing Alisa to sigh.

She nodded her head. "With how Angie is, yes, I would. But I also know you're not as foolish to wander alone like that."

"And once again you see right through me." Xeron shook his head ruefully. "Fine, I wanted to figure out what the heck is up with these ARCUS units." he said holding up his own ARCUS.

"You remember what the instructor called them?"

"Yeah, she called them an 'All-Round Communication and Unison System'. What about—Ooooh," Alisa ooh'd in realization at what he was getting at. "You want to figure out what she meant by unison without anyone bothering you."

Xeron nodded. "Right, except, considering this was made in a joint project between Epstein and Reinford, maybe I should've brought you along with me," he mumbled causing a vein to pulse angrily upon Alisa's forehead.

"You think?!" she yelled.

Xeron held his hands up in defense. "Hey, I thought you'd want some time to apologize to your new boytoy after slapping him. I know how you are after all."

"Wha—Bwuh?!" Alisa fell into a smatter of sputtering at his words, a blush encompassing her face.

Fortunately for her, a much-needed distraction arrived in the form of small fat rat-like beings flying towards them with tiny flying bat wings. "Monsters?!" Alisa yelped in surprise, unfolding an orbal bow from her hip as they drew close.

"Well, Instructor Sara did say quite explicitly that there would be monsters down here," Xeron said while rolling his shoulder in preparation before bringing his hands up, both opened loosely but at the ready.

"Will you be serious already?!" Alisa yelled back at her long-time friend, his lowkey snark admittedly not great for situations like these.

"Yeah, yeah," Xeron grumbled as the monsters finally came into close-combat range. "I'll take point and keep them on me, take a shot whenever you can," he ordered succinctly before rushing forward, unheeding of whatever Alisa may have said in the face of a good fight.

With short steps Xeron found himself face to frothing mouth with one of the little flying bat monster things, a swing of his fist found the beast grounded, Xeron already moving onto the next one leaving the previous one for Alisa to finish off. In total, aside from the one that Alisa had proceeded to take down with a few shots from her bow, there were still four remaining.

The remaining four went down just as easily, Alisa taking pot-shots from afar while Xeron struck and evaded any oncoming blows. With one strong blow to its head, the final monster dropped to the ground lifeless before bursting into purple dust, the other doing the same leaving various types of sepith behind.

Holding himself in a stance of wariness for a moment longer before allowing the tension throughout his body to seep away, Xeron let out a disappointed exhale. "That was a woefully disappointing encounter," Xeron stated, walking forward and crouching down to collect the dropped sepith.

Alisa snorted delicately, "You sparred with Angelica on a near-daily basis back when she was in Roer, and after that you've fought some of the weaker monsters on the way to the Sachsen Mines. It's no wonder a battle-nut like you is disappointed."

Xeron sent her a hurt look. "Battle-nut? Me? Why I'm offended you'd say something so hurtful-" he said deadpan while his hands collected the sepith before stopping as they hit something round. "-Oh?" Xeron murmured before withdrawing his hand with the small orb. "A quartz?"

Alisa leaned over his crouched form to look over his shoulder at the blue orb that sat snugly in the palm of his gloves. "Oh, that's a freeze quartz! I didn't think the monsters here would drop quartz."

Xeron's eyes narrowed but he shrugged off the strange thought forming in his head. As far as he knew quartz was naturally formed by monsters that held a large amount of elemental sepith, with the stronger a monster naturally creating stronger quartz. But, it also required for the same elemental sepith to create the same elementally-aligned quartz.

Looking at his hand showed that the sepith dropped by these monsters were mostly fire and earth with small smatterings of wind. Freeze quartz was elementally aligned with water sepith.

That really left one option as to where the freeze quartz came from.

'_Here's to hoping no one ahead of us is grievously injured,'_ Xeron thought silently, not wanting to cause Alisa undue worry. He did, however, plop the quartz into his ACRUS, the quartz glowing a soft blue at the top of his orbment confirming that it was ready for use.

Xeron would never truly get used to battle orbments. The feeling of an unnatural but comforting chill permeating his hands or anything of the like would always be a disconcerting feeling when one considered that it was all due to a little ball being inserted into a device that wasn't physically linked. "You mind if I take any evade, attack, and action quartz or any of the status ones that we come across? You know how I'm not a big fan of arts," Xeron asked more out of courtesy than anything. They both knew each other's quartz preference after all.

Alisa nodded in acceptance at his request. "So long as I get any arta quartz or mirage ones," she replied while stowing away her orbal bow now that the danger had passed.

Xeron had a stronger leaning towards orbment types of wind and time while Alisa favored those of fire and space. Similar to that Xeron was much more of a close-combatant with a heavy dislike for personally using arts while Alisa was the exact opposite.

"Works for me," Xeron shrugged as he stood up and looked down the hallway. "From what I can tell there's a fair number of monsters but nothing we can't handle if we don't try and rush it. Shall we mosey on and see if we can meet up with the others?"

"…Please never say 'mosey' again, coming from you it just sounds weird."

"Wow… rude."

* * *

It was only ten minutes later as they reached a crossroad did anything of interest happen aside from the fighting of monsters.

"Oh?" Alisa perked as she noticed a group of individuals in red standing at the center of the three-way crossroads.

Xeron was instantly suspicious since there hadn't been any diverging paths except the one they'd been on, but it seemed the other groups that had been formed in their absence came from strikingly different paths.

"Oh, it's you two!" the red-haired boy spoke in surprise as he noticed the two approaching, some sort of green orbal staff within his grasp. Beside him was the black-haired boy, Rean, who was had a sheathed sword at his side, some sort of eastern-style sword judging by its curve and the slanted tip at the end of his sheath common to one-sided blades. On the red-haired boy's other side was the tall teen that looked like he could be from Nord with a cross-headed spear slung to his back. The last of their group beside Rean admittedly surprised him somewhat as the last of the male group was Machias.

Strange as it meant Machias had backtracked but he and Alisa hadn't encountered him at all.

The other group that was with them was Blue-hair and First-place. Xeron realized that he'd eventually need to get their names, there was no way he could continue calling them that if they were going to be classmates.

Xeron held up a hand in greeting.

"Yo."

Alisa scowled at Rean.

* * *

"Yo."

The purple-haired teen gave a casual wave just a moment after they'd entered the crossroads, Rean's group and the blue-haired girls' group having just entered as well. Rean did wince, however, as he noticed the blonde girl scowling at him.

"It seems we all meet again," the blue-haired girl said.

"I'm glad the six of you are unharmed," the bespectacled girl followed up with a small bow.

The blue-haired girl took notice of the groups additional individual since they'd last seen Rean's group. "Well, it seems you've cooled your head a bit, at least." she said calmly towards Machias.

Rggh… Yes, I've calmed down now." Machias confirmed, but an annoyed sigh leaving his lips as he did so.

Everyone gathered together with himself, Elliot, Gaius and Machias on one side and the blue-haired girl, the bespectacled girl, the blonde-haired girl, and the purple-haired boy on the other.

"At any rate, I don't believe I've introduced myself yet, have I?" the blue-haired girl began. "I'm Laura S. Arseid, from the town of Legram. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." she said with a smile.

"Huh… Legram?" Rean started.

Elliot seemed to perk though, "That's down on the south-eastern outskirts of the Empire, isn't it?"

Laura nodded, happy that someone knew of her home. "Correct. It's an old castle town on the shores of Lake Ebel." she explained, "We're connected to the rest of Erebonia by train, but other than that, it's a fairly remote region."

"Hmm…?" Machias seemed to swivel his eyesight on her. "That name sounds familiar…"

The purple-haired teen seemed to chuckle at that. "If you find someone here at Thors that doesn't know the name of Arseid. They probably don't know much about swords," he said catching everyone's attention. "Arseid is the name of one of the two famous swords styles taught throughout the empire alongside the Vander style. It's also the last name of the 'Radiant Blademaster', Victor S. Arseid."

Rean's eyes almost bulged at that. The Radiant Blademaster was the current strongest swordsman on this side and maybe all of Zemuria. Turning to Laura, the purple-haired teen asked a question. "You wouldn't happen to be his daughter, would you?"

Laura nodded. "I did not think anyone within this class would know of the Arseid school, but yes, I am indeed my father's daughter."

"…Wait! So, your father is the Viscount of Legram?!" Machias almost yelled out, his words causing Rean and Elliot to internally wince while Gaius looked on in confusion.

"Yes… my father is Viscount Arseid, Lord of Legram," she replied nonplussed. "Do you take issue with that?"

"N-No, not at all…" Machias was all-too-quick to backtrack, but still seemed aggrieved.

"Machias was it...?" Laura noticing this decided to speak out, "I can only speak for myself, but I don't feel I've ever done anything to bring shame upon myself in Aidios' eyes. And I fully believe the same to be true of my father." Her brows furrowed as her eyes narrowed into a small glare causing Machias to sweat.

"P-Please, I meant no offense. I'm sorry if I… if I, uh…" Machias stammered before switching his eyes to the bespectacled girl, eager to change the subject. "Say, I don't believe we've been introduced."

Rean sweatdropped at the blatant change of subject.

"I'm Emma Millstein." She replied. "Like Laura, I come from a distant region of the Empire. I was only able to attend Thors thanks to a scholarship, in fact. It's very nice to meet you." She said with blue eyes closing into a beautiful smile.

"A scholarship? Hmm…" Machias said, almost surprised. "Indeed, now that you mention it, our instructor did say yours was the top score on the entrance exam." His voice lowered till he was muttering to himself but it could still be heard all the while. "To think that I was outdone… and by a girl, no less…"

"You must be quite the prodigy." Gaius praised.

"Maybe it seems like it now, but really I'm not." Emma laughed nervously at the praise. "I don't have any training in the martial arts either, so… this is the weapon the recommended for me," she said while withdrawing a weapon that Rean had gotten the time to become familiar with in the past hour.

"Oh, cool, you got an orbal staff too!" Elliot said before noticing something. "Yours looks different from mine, though…" he said while withdrawing his own orbal staff.

Different it was. While Elliot's seemed more like a club that was bright green at its head with a blue jewel at its center, Emma's seemed to have more of a fish-hook shape to its head with a more lilac coloring to it rather than bright green.

"So it does… I wonder if it's cosmetic…" Emma mused.

After that, Machias, Elliot, Gaius and Rean all introduced themselves before attention fell onto the two that had yet to introduce themselves. The blonde-haired girl and her purple-haired friend.

Rean took notice at how the blonde-haired girl was still staring daggers at him with her ruby eyes.

Rean sighed mentally. _'I really need to clear things up with her, but… what do I even say?'_ he thought but it seemed that Aidios was watching over him as the purple-hired teen ruffled her blonde hair changing her attention from Rean to him.

"Lighten up 'Lisa, at least introduce yourself before you and your little boytoy go at it again."

Perhaps not.

Both Rean and the blonde-haired girl burst into blushes and stammers. Similar blushes dusted everyone else's cheeks as his words and its insinuations reached them

"Wh-what?!" Rean sputtered incoherently.

"Stop that Xeron! It's not funny!" the blonde-haired girl yelled with a furious pout to which the purple-haired boy just laughed it off. She seemed to take one more glare at both the purple-haired boy and Rean himself before letting out a sigh.

"I'm Alisa…R. From Roer It's a pleasure to meet ALMOST all of you." the girl, Alisa, spoke while heavily emphasizing the last part. Rean could easily tell who she was referring to. The purple-haired boy gave a disparaged sigh.

"Roer, huh? What's it like living there? There's probably a new technological breakthrough every week." Elliot asked curiously.

"The Reinford Company's based in Roer, and they're the largest heavy industry corporation on the continent, aren't they?" Machias asked, curious as well.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't Alisa that responded but the purple-haired teen. "Yup, the Reinford Company's main headquarters is in Roer, and between them and the Roer Institute of Technology, every week there's some new invention that hits production."

"Oh? You're from Roer as well?" Emma asked, curious as to who the purple-haired teen was.

"Mhmm. Born and raised in Roer my whole life and have been this one's friend since we were ten." he finished while ruffling Alisa's head once more.

"Stop that already, would you?!" Alisa shouted.

Rean had to admit, the two were certainly close but more in a brother and sister fashion rather than romantic love interest.

Suddenly the teen's head shot up. "Oh! I never did introduce myself, did I?"

At everyone's shake of the head, the teen dusted himself off.

"Well, the name's Xeron Rogner of Roer. Nice to meet you all." he introduced himself with a smile.

...

"WHAT?!" Elliot reeled in shock. "You're a Rogner?! From the Four Great Houses?!"

Xeron nodded as if he hadn't just casually introduced that he was from one of the strongest noble houses in all of Erebonia. "Yup. I'm the only son of Marquis Gerhart Rogner. The lord of the Nortia Province."

"Haha…"

Everyone was confused at the sudden laughter. Looking around to find its source before falling onto a head of green.

Rean could already tell this wasn't going to end well.

"So, another noble scion deigns to leave his grace and walk amongst us commoners." Machias sneered. "What's a noble like you doing here with us commoners-?!" he tried to continue but was cut off by a raise of one of Xeron's hands.

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you right there." Xeron spoke up as he lackadaisically clasped his hands behind his head. "You can continue your rant if you want but I'm just going to let you know now that I'm not really bothered to deal with whatever hate you have to nobility so probably just leave that for Albarea's kid, yeah?"

He stopped for a moment as if remembering something. "Oh, but if you want to talk to me about hating someone, I'd be more than happy to oblige in talking shit about my uncle Heidel. He's an asshole."

Rean was at a loss and it seemed like he wasn't the only one. Whereas Jusis Albarea was the stereotypical noble, it seemed that Xeron Rogner was definitely _not._ In any way.

Machias fell silent as he stood stunned, his earlier rant cut off by Xeron's interruption and it seemed like it'd stay that way for a while longer judging by his gobsmacked expression.

With the sudden silence, Rean decided that now may be the best time to apologize to Alisa.

"S-So, hey…" Rean said before realizing he didn't know how to start the conversation before his eyes drifted to the bow attached to the small of her back. "I guess that bow must've been in that case you had with you when we first met, right? I've never seen one like it. Is there some kind of orbal mechanism built-in?"

Lidded ruby eyes glared at him. "There is, but I don't see how that's any of YOUR business."

"Ouch…" Rean couldn't help but say at the blunt words.

"Ummm… yeah." Elliot said lamely, trying his level best to keep the tension to a minimum. "Anyone got any ideas on what to do now? We've all run into each other wandering around – how about we stick together?" he asked.

"Honestly seems like a good idea," Xeron admitted. "It's a good idea to keep a location of where everyone is."

Machias, however, seemed like he'd gotten his fire back. "Why does a noble like you care what happens to commoners like us?!" he all but yelled at Xeron.

Xeron simply looked at him like he was an idiot. Slowly he took a step to his left and waved his hands at Alisa. "Alisa's a commoner… I don't really know how much I'll need to say this to you but I don't really care all that much about who's nobility or commoner," he said disgruntled, but shrugged. "It's a pain being like your typical noble hard-ass."

"Tch…." Machias grunted, not really knowing how to reply in the face of such bluntness. Maybe if Xeron had been anything like Jusis he could've had rebuttal after rebuttal, but he simply wasn't.

Instead, he simply decided to take the easier option. He ignored Xeron completely.

Coughing into his hand he pushed up his glasses. "I believe it would be for the best to travel together. It's not safe for a group of girls to travel alone. You may require prot-" he was cut off, however, once more but by Laura.

"You needn't be concerned about that," the blue-haired girl said almost sweetly. With a calm confidence she unsheathed the sword by her side and drew it to full length with both hands handling it with ease. I was easily 3-4 arge in length with a silver blade and blue accents, the crest of Arseid etched just above the hilt.

"I-I beg your pardon?" Machias asked taken aback at her sudden interruption.

"I do not mean to boast, but I am confident that my swordsmanship will be more than sufficient to protect us," Laura explained calmly. "For now, I believe it would be best for us to remain in separate groups. There are still two of us that are unaccounted for."

Emma agreed with Laura. "She's right, we've still yet to run into that silver-haired girl."

"From what I saw, she was fast enough to react, pull out a grappling hook and jump out of the way of the falling door. If anything, she should be fine. She's certainly fast enough to stay alive." Xeron shook his head but agreed, "Admittedly, as I said earlier, it's better to know where our classmates are."

"In that case, three teams would increase the area of coverage." Gaius spoke up, having been quiet for the most part through their exchanges. "Three teams would also mean a faster time in finding our missing companions. How does that sound."

"Agreed. I have no objections to that," Laura nodded, but gave a side-glance to Alisa and Xeron. "However, I would not be averse to our groups joining, there are only two of us each and joining together would mean that we even out our current numbers."

Alisa looked at her strangely before glancing at Xeron.

Rean watched a Xeron merely shrugged. "Up to you," he said with a quick inclination in Laura's direction.

"Of it wouldn't be a bother then we'd be more than happy to join you," Alisa said with a small curtsy.

Laura sheathed her sword, the tip of her sheathe barely dragging against the ground due to its size. "So then, shall we be off?" she asked Emma and her two new companions.

"All right then…" Alisa replied before walking off into the one remaining corridor.

"Works for me," Xeron added following after, giving a backward wave to the four males, Laura quietly following the two.

Emma bowed to the four boys. "We'll see the four of you later, then!" she said cheerfully before rushing off after the rest of her group.

As soon as they were out of sight, Rean let out an exhausted groan.

Elliot chuckled awkwardly, "She really doesn't seem like she's going to let that go, does she?"

"It was clearly an accident; everyone could see that. But I don't suppose it makes any difference to her." Machias added his two Mira.

Rean couldn't help but notice how Machias still seemed content to completely ignore Xeron's existence.

"Still, is no one else worried about leaving a group of girls to fend for themselves in a place like this?" Machias asked.

"I do not believe we have anything to worry about so long as Laura is with them. She really wears her skill on her sleeve. I doubt she drags around a sword that big just for show" Gaius responded. "You are also forgetting that Xeron is with them, and judging by the wind at his back, he isn't someone to take lightly either."

"Tch… I'd bet good Mira that stuck-up noble couldn't care less about them," Machias spat out almost stubbornly. It seemed actually bringing up the topic of the Rogner scion would bring Machias' earlier ire all rushing back. "He didn't even have a weapon on him, how would he even protect them?!"

"Well… he didn't seem all that bad compared to Jusis or even other nobles I've seen," Elliot commented in the purple-haired boys defense. "If he hadn't told us he was from one of the Four Great Houses, I would've easily believed he was a commoner just like us. He's just way too… well, 'common'."

"I agree," Rean nodded. "He's the furthest thing from a noble. And judging by how close he and Alisa are, I'd probably say they're childhood friends. Not every day you hear an heir of the Four Great Houses being childhood friends with a commoner."

Machias merely grit his teeth together, far too stubborn to accept their words.

"Back onto Laura though, her sword is enormous. I'm amazed she can even lift it with such ease," Elliot said, changing the topic of discussion back to a safer area as he and the other noticed Machias seemingly trying to ground his teeth to dust.

Machias took to the topic with unreserved glee. "It's certainly an enormous blade, indeed. I'd even go as far as to say it's comically huge, if it wasn't for the fact of how dangerous it looks. But at the end of the day, a lady is a lady."

"She's taller and sturdier than I am!" Elliot gave him a look. "Though I admit, it's still hard to believe anyone could swing that behemoth of a sword."

"I'd bet she can whip it around easily," Rean said getting their attention. "It's like Xeron said, the Arseid and Vander styles are the two founding school of swordsmanship that are used by knights throughout the Empire. Her father, Viscount S. Arseid, is arguably the strongest swordmaster on both sides of Erebonia, maybe even Zemuria. One doesn't earn the title of 'Radiant Blademaster' without being extremely skilled."

"I doubt any of the other students here could even stand their ground against her in combat, much less beat her," Rean said, "Not even the four of us together."

Machias and Elliot recoiled.

"W-Wow…"

"You're kidding…! Right?"

Gaius quirked a brow. "Interesting. I didn't realize there were still roots of the old knightly styles alive in the empire."

"You sure know a lot of stuff about this Rean, hobby of yours?" Elliot asked curiously.

"Any swordsman worth their blade would know even a little about the Vander and Arseid schools. Being a swordsman myself, the lore sort of comes with the territory." Rean nodded. "But at any rate, how about we pick up the search? I'm worried about that silver-haired girl, and we still need to track down Duke Albarea's son too."

"That's true," came Gaius' response.

Machias, on the other hand, bristled at the mention of Jusis. "Hmph. I couldn't care what happens to that pompous ass. He can rot down here for all I care."

"Hehe…" Elliot nervously laughed. "Come on now, that's no way to treat someone you just met!"

* * *

Xeron looked behind them.

"Is everything alright?" Laura asked, noticing that for the past five minutes Xeron had been looking behind them constantly. As far as she could tell, no monsters were in-sight.

Xeron gave one last look suspiciously before shaking his head. "No… it's nothing. This place is just getting to me is all."

"What? You're getting nervous now?" Alisa asked.

Xeron looked at Laura, Alisa, and Emma. "Am I really the only one that's noticed?"

All three girls stopped.

"What do you mean?" Emma asked curiously.

"I agree, I haven't noticed anything strange or out of place either," Laura added.

Xeron gave another look around.

"It's just that… well we all started in that huge circular room, right?"

The three girls nodded.

"Right." Alisa nodded.

"That's the thing. We all started at the same place but we all converged at a crossroad from the different directions," Xeron explained. "And as far as I noticed, for Alisa and myself, the whole way through was basically linear. No branching paths or anything."

"That… you have a point actually." Emma's brows furrowed.

"Now that you mention it, you're right." Alisa realized, "The corridor was just one winding corridor for us."

"Not only that, but Machias joined up with Rean and the others yeah?" Xeron asked getting nods in return. "Well I didn't see him pass us at all, and we left after him but before Rean's group."

Laura's eyes started to dart around. Xeron was making an excellent point, one she hadn't even noticed till he'd brought it up. "You're correct, for the most part our paths were straight as well with a few branching ones that were dead-ends. Neither I nor Emma saw Machias as well."

"So, what does that mean? Is this like a haunted magical schoolhouse or something?" Alisa asked, Emma nervously laughing.

"I don't know," Xeron was admittedly confused. "I'm not even sure where to begin with this place. The only thing that I know is that I want to leave this place as soon as possible."

"Agreed. As much as I would like to find out more, our classmates are far more important." Laura agreed. "I suppose the best we can do is continue moving forward and hope for the best."

"Yeah… I guess you're right…" Xeron said uncertainly. There was just something about this place that brought up memories. Not pleasant ones but not horrible ones either. Just old ones.

With everyone reaching an agreement, the four continued on their way through the long corridor of the old schoolhouse, an overbearing silence between them, their thoughts drifting true and fro about what Xeron had brought up.

Thankfully, Emma decided to break the silence.

"Umm… Xeron?" Emma asked hesitantly grabbing everyone's attention. "I've been meaning to ask but are you truly part of House Rogner?"

"I must admit, I too have my doubts," Laura admitted. "I was uninformed that a third of the Four Great Houses would be joining Thors. Additionally, you are far too… different to a person I would expect someone of your standing to act like."

"No need to sugar-coat it. I'm well aware that I'm the furthest thing someone would expect to be a noble," Xeron chuckled and shrugged. "Let's just say what you're seeing is a coin. I can be what a noble wants me to be and what commoners see."

Laura's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "So you are merely hiding your true self?"

"Actually, he means they're both him. He just chooses which one is appropriate depending on the circumstance," Alisa cut in, noticing the narrowing of the blue-haired girl's eyes.

"I see…" Laura murmured lightly, her suspicion easing somewhat at the blonde's defence.

"Um… If you don't mind me asking, but how do you two know each other?" Emma asked another question. "I'd thought that commoners and nobles, especially those from the Great Houses have a dislike for each other."

"Eh… we're childhood friends. I've known Alisa since we were nine." Xeron replied casually.

"Really?" Emma asked surprised.

"Yup." Alisa nodded. "His sister introduced us when we were younger and we've been friends ever since," her eyes narrowed as she dodged Xeron's hand that was trying to ruffle her hair, "Even if he can be a nuisance at times."

"I'm hurt… right here," Xeron spoke dramatically, clutching at his chest miming as if his heart had been wounded.

Both Emma and Laura giggled at his display of dramatics while Alisa gave an annoyed but fond grin.

Laura looked at Xeron and noticed his lack of weaponry. "I've been meaning to ask, but I've been under the assumption that all members of the Four Great houses practice swordplay? Is that not the case for you?"

"Hmm? Ah, nah I've practiced swordsmanship a bit but I'm not exactly suited for it. My hand-eye coordination when using a sword is abysmal." Xeron looked at her in momentary confusion. "Neither the Arseid school or both styles of the Vander school suit me and neither does Court Swordsmanship. It's either far too heavy a sword-style or focuses on quick coordinated strikes."

"I mean I've some talent using the Hundred-Forms style of Imperial combat, but other than that I don't really use swords," he explained.

"That's a shame, I was truly hoping to find more sword practitioners at Thors," Laura said disappointed, but looked back to him. "If you wouldn't mind my knowing, what exactly is it you use? I myself wield a two-handed greatsword, Emma uses an Orbal Staff, and Alisa uses an Orbal Bow but I don't see any form of weaponry on you."

Xeron merely lifted up both of his gloved hands, curling them into fists. "I fight using my fists. I'm a Taito practitioner like my sister, it's a form of martial arts mostly used throughout Calvard."

"Interesting…" Laura muttered. "Should we have the chance, I would like to test my skills against you-"

ROOOOOOOAAAAAAR!

A loud roar resounded throughout the corridor, coming from end of the corridor.

"W-What was that?" Emma asked fearfully.

"It sounded like it's coming from the end of the hallway," Alisa added

Laura and Xeron, on the other hand, waited for a moment, ears straining. Faintly, the two could hear the sounds of combat ahead.

"I do believe we may have found the rest of our classmates." Laura said.

A grin crept over Xeron's face. "Whatever it is, it sounds like it'll put up a good fight. Shall we?" he asked Laura, a smile overcoming her face as she nodded before the two dashed forwards, intent on fighting whatever lay ahead.

Behind them, Alisa and Emma rushed to catch up.

* * *

Rean gave a heavy sigh of relief as the giant monstrosity blocking their way fell to the ground. Around him, Elliot, Gaius and Jusis almost collapsed as well, breathing heavily.

When Rean, Elliot, Gaius, and Jusis had made their way to the end, Rean hadn't been expecting a beast from the dark ages to show up, much less one that had previously been made out of stone and was better known for staying that way.

At least it HAD been made out of stone, before seemingly like it had been made up of grey scales and purple flesh and definitely seemed more alive than it had been originally. Now though, it's prone golden scaled and blue-scaled form was proof of the fact that it had seemingly mutated halfway through their battle.

"Is it done for?" Jusis asked cautiously.

"No! It's done but not out yet, get back!" Rean shouted, Jusis jumping back a few steps while Gaius and Elliot stood back cautiously.

It seemed Rean was right as after a few scant moments it righted itself once more, ready to do battle again.

"Aaah!" Elliot squeaked.

"That's one hell of a second wind," Gaius noted while readying his spear.

"I appreciate a certain degree of tenacity but this thing needs to understand where it's wholly unwanted!" Jusis agreed with a growl.

'_We're too winded to make a comeback,'_ Rean looked around at everyone's winded forms. _'It's no use… I'll just have to-'_

"Stand back!" a familiar voice called out cutting Rean from his thoughts before bolts of energy shot towards the stone demon.

A familiar bespectacled girl joined the fray by Jusis and swung her orbal staff, purple balls of orbal energy rushing towards the beast to little effect.

Two figures rushed forward, a large sword slashing downwards at the beast while the other threw swift blows its chest, lifting the beast a rege or two off the ground with each strike. The two strikes by the figures were the most damage anyone had been able to inflict so far, a large gouge coming from the left side of its neck to its left forelimb while there were cracks in its chest.

"You made it!" Elliot was all too relieved to see Laura, Emma, Alisa, and Xeron joining them.

"You all certainly have some good timing!" Gaius said gratefully.

"What? Did you think you four could have all the fun with a fight like this? You're joking!" Xeron grinned, his body in a strange stance with his upper body leaning back but his arms extended ready to strike.

"You and I have two entirely different definitions of fun," Jusis muttered drolly.

Alisa let out a sigh of relief as she took everyone's forms in. "Whew… it seems like you're all okay, at least!"

"I-I'm sorry we took so long!" Emma apologized.

Rean shook his head. "You're here and that's what counts."

"So, a gargoyle, is it?" Laura asked almost curiously despite the monster staring the group down. "I didn't expect to find the Dark Ages alive and well down here."

"With how weird this place is, I'm honestly surprised we didn't encounter it earlier," Xeron replied nonchalantly, all too calm as well. "I'll admit though, it certainly felt like I was punching stone," he said while giving his hands a shake.

The males were slightly taken aback before taking another glance at the monsters' torso, small fist-sized craters with cracks spreading from them littered its center. Rean didn't realize people could leave cracks in stone with just their fists with only leather gloves as protection.

"It certainly doesn't seem like it'll go down so easily," Laura said much to everyone's agreement.

"We have given it all that we have and it is yet still standing," Jusis nodded. "I don't suppose any of you have some anything useful up your sleeves."

Rean leaned forward, his tachi ready. "With this many of us, if we could just find an opening…"

"Fine… I guess I'll help out."

He was pleasantly surprised by a familiar voice making itself known. Looking back, Rean found both Machias and fie standing behind them.

"Machias!" Elliot yelled happily.

"I'm glad we managed to get here just in time," Machias said as he raised his gun to the gargoyle. "Releasing limiter. Take this!" he shouted as he pulled the trigger of his shotgun.

"BREAK SHOT!"

A large missile-like shotgun blast left his gun as crashed against the beast. Meanwhile, the little silver-haired girl dashed forward with her blades at the ready. Rean watched in awe as she jumped clear over the gargoyle, a full ten arge in height befoe landing by its right hindleg and slashing in an X pattern.

"ROOOOAAAR!"

The gargoyle let out a loud pained roar as purple blood began to gush from its hindleg.

"An opening!" Gaius started.

"Go!" Rean shouted as he shot forward. Everyone else did likewise with blades slashing forward and orbal weaponry shooting forth bolts of energy or bullets.

Sheathing his blade, Rean stopped for a moment gaining his bearings. He waited carefully as everyone else attacked, waiting for the right moment. He watched as Xeron rushed in, dodging and weaving through everyone else's strikes as he arrived just in front of the beast. With little wind-up, a single uppercut to its chest shattered the already cracked scales revealing tender flesh beneath.

There!

Rean shot forward, tachi drawn swiftly and slicing deeply into the tender flesh, gouts of purple blood flooding forth as he jumped back. "Everyone, now!" he yelled, everyone understanding what he'd meant.

As the beast roared, extending its neck as it did do, in unison everyone retreated with the exception of Laura who instead readied her greatsword. "This one's mine!" she shouted as she launched herself into the air. In one powerful slash, she took the opening and beheaded the gargoyle, its head falling beside her as she landed.

Everyone watched as the fleshy head turned back to stone before disappearing in a purple light alongside the rest of its body.

"I-It…" Elliot stuttered between pants.

"We did it!" Alisa cheered.

Everyone stowed their weapons away and gathered around after the small celebratory victory.

"Phew… I think that's the end of it." Emma addressed everyone.

"At the very least, that creature doesn't seem like it'll be coming back for a rematch anytime soon." Gaius nodded.

Xeron snorted "I don't know about you all, but if that thing decides to come back after being beheaded, I'd certainly be interested to see how it'd fight without a head."

Jusis shook his head at the purple-haired teen. "I think I could speak for most of us here that we would not wish to face that monstrosity again. You will be on your own."

"Shame."

The levity of the conversation seemed to have put everyone in a better mood as everyone cracked a small smile or grin.

"What happened there, anyway? Right at the end of the battle…" Elliot asked trailing off.

"Now that you mention it, I DID feel something wash over me for just a second there." Alisa nodded, remembering a blue light that washed over them.

"There was a shimmering veil of blue light surrounding each of us," Jusis added with his arms crossed.

"Was there…?" Machias questioned.

"I did notice something as we fought. Perhaps it just the blur of combat…" Laura began, "… but I felt like I could see everyone's movements in precise detail."

Fie looked at the blue-haired girl. "I don't think it was just your imagination," she said deadpan.

"Agreed. I have a feeling that what we just experienced was-"

"Unison."

Rean stopped at the interruption puzzled before looked over at the voice.

It was Xeron.

"It's been bothering me ever since we'd gotten out ARCUS, but that's it," Xeron explained as he noticed everyone looking at him. "I've been trying to figure out what the Unison effect of ARCUS was, and I think we've just found it."

Clap Clap Clap

Clapping rained from above.

Everyone looked up.

"You two really are sharp ones, aren't you?" Ms. Valestein asked. "Yup, that's the biggest selling point of the almighty ARCUS! It looks like friendship and teamwork save the day once again! I'm so proud of you guys!" she gushed.

Everyone watched in silence as she descended the stairs and approached the group of ten.

"Anyway, that about wraps up today's special… orienteering… exercise…" Sara trailed off as she noticed everyone's expressions, "…Aww, what's with the long face? I thought you'd all be happy!"

"Wh-What are we supposed to be happy about?!" Machias asked.

Alisa crossed her arms. "I Have so many questions, I'm not even sure where to start…"

"If that's the case, I'll ask." Xeron stepped forward, uncharacteristically serious for the short time Rean had known him. "What the hell is up with the place? The layout of the floor makes no sense. We all left the same room but all ended up meeting in different places."

"Ehehe…?" Sara gave a nervously confused chuckle as she looked at Xeron. "What?"

Xeron just stared at her.

Then he face-palmed.

"I don't know what I was expecting but this certainly wasn't it," he groaned into his hand, everyone else sweat dropping as he did so.

"Fine then, if you can't answer that, then at least answer this," Jusis requested. "What exactly is the purpose behind the 'Class VII'?"

"I mean, we get that it's supposed to be some sort of melting pot that includes a bored cross-section of people…" Emma spoke.

"…but why were the ten of us chosen in particular?" Laura picked up where Emma left off.

"Hmm… now that's a valid question I might be able to answer." Sara hummed. "There's no single, monolithic reason why you all made the list… but if I had to contribute a major, contributing factor, it'd be those ARCUS orbment you've got there."

Everyone looked at her in surprise as one by one they each withdrew their ARCUS and flipped them open.

"How so?" Rean asked inquisitively.

"Well, as I explained earlier, the ARCUS units are developed jointly y the Epstein Foundation and the Reinford Company. Like any battle orbment, they let you use arts, and these have communication functionality built-in." Sara explained. "But their crowning feature is what's known as combat linking. That's the phenomenon you all experienced just now. It's what the Unison in ARCUS means."

"So that's what that was…" Alisa murmured.

"It is a pretty apt term. It did feel like we were all connected, somehow," Elliot admitted as he admired the ARCUS in a new light.

"Precisely!" Sara nodded her head happily. "It doesn't take a genius to imagine how much of an advantage a feature like that would be on a real battlefield. An elite unit that can sense each other's movements, acting in perfect sync, even in the most chaotic conditions… you can hardly put a price on that! It could bring about a revolution in the way wars are fought!"

"Hmm… It does sound rather-" Laura began.

Fie interrupted "-Idealistic is what you're looking for."

"Well, yeah, the technology has its limits. Some have a natural aptitude for it. Other just… don't." Sara said lamely. "And out of this year's fresh batch of bright-eyed students, the nine of you turned out to have the highest aptitude, and since aptitude trumps background in Class VII, well… here you are."

"…I see." Gaius muttered.

Machias stared at the instructor confused, "But what gives us this aptitude, though, as compared to our peers? It just seems so… random."

Sara was silent for a moment. But just as she was about to speak, a hand caught her attention.

It was Xeron once more, have removed his hand from his face to raise it as if asking for permission.

"Uh… yes?" Sara asked. Meanwhile, everyone looked at him.

Glad that he had her attention, Xeron spoke. "You don't really need aptitude for this do you?"

Rean looked at him in confusion. But wasn't that what the Instructor had just said? Some people have a natural aptitude while some don't?

"Oh?" Sara asked interested. "What makes you say that?"

Xeron shrugged before holding up his ARCUS.

Two blue lights shone from beneath him and Alisa.

"What in the-?" Machias yelled while the others took a step back in surprise.

"It's not a natural aptitude, it's a trust-based system. There's no proper way to measure potential or aptitude in any scientific or technological setting. One of Professor G. Schmidt's earliest stated laws reflects that, there's no physical way to test for the abstract." Xeron explained succinctly. "It also doesn't make sense that if we all have the same aptitude, why is it I can create a combat link with Alisa but not anyone else?" Xeron asked before the link died down.

Everyone blinked in astonishment.

"It makes more sense that it's a trust-based system. While it's still an abstract measurement, a mutual trust could theoretically be used to form a mental link between combatants," Xeron continued further. "That's why we could all share a ten-way combat link, we all placed our trust in each other during the fight but now we're back to square one."

…

"Wow, you really are a smart one," Sara whistled impressed. "You saw right through my little explanation as well."

"What?" Machias repeated once more, even more lost than before.

Nearly everyone else was the same except for Xeron and Fie, the former already understanding the principles behind the ARCUS while the latter didn't care.

Sara smiled at him then looked around at the rest of them. "But yeah, he's right. There is no aptitude for using an ARCUS. In the end, it all boils down to trust, and that's what Class VII is about."

"Wh-What do you mean?" Emma asked.

"Well, as you said, this class is a melting point that includes lots of people from different backgrounds. The purpose of this class is to break down the social barriers between the nobility and common-folk and create a class that trusts each other, no matter the social standing. To create a class that can be the founding future." Sara explained, giving a wink towards Fie. "Like you said, Fie. Idealistic."

"That's the whole point behind Class VII. I was told telling all of you immediately would scare you away, buuuut it seems like one of you is too smart for your own good and so here we are." she gave a pointed look at Xeron who grinned and gave an unrepentant shrug on his shoulders. "But I stand by my promise, if any of you have objections to being in this class, speak now or forever hold your peace."

No one really knew how to respond to that. Finding out that the class they were in was meant to be the founding future built on trust between nobles and commoners alike.

"That's the how, what, and why of your situation but this program isn't cheap to run, so we're not going to force anyone into it if they don't want to be here." Sara said seriously. "You should also be aware that Class VII's curriculum will be tougher than any other class' coursework. Just a fair warning."

"So now you know, and that leaves you all with an important decision to make: will you stick with Class VII, or not?" Sara asked seriously.

Rean looked at Elliot while everyone gave each other a glance save for some like Fie, Laura, Machias, and Jusis.

"Oh!" Sara remembered something. "If you opt-out, you'll just be placed in the class you would've been assigned to otherwise. There's no pressure. Nobles will land in class one or two, commoners in three, four, or five. It's still the first day so there's no real catching up to do. I'm sure you'd fit in fine."

Out of the ten students, Rean was the first to step forward. "I'll do it." Rean said, "Whatever Class VII has to throw at me, I'm game."

That got everyone's attention.

"Huh… Figured it'd be a toss-up between you, Laura, or Gaius…" Xeron murmured off to the side while Alisa looked at him stunned.

"W-Wait, what?" she yelled surprised.

It seems she wasn't the only one judging by the look Elliot gave him. "Just like that?!"

"So you're the first then…" Sara smiled while cocking a hand on her hip. "You seem pretty sure about it. Any particular reason?"

"Not really. I just feel like I've put my family out, asking them to send me to this school," Rean shook his head. "So, if it gives me more to show for my time here, I'll take whatever opportunities come my way."

"Hmm… A noble sentiment." Sara nodded happily.

There was a moment of silence before Laura stepped forward as well. "Count me in as well. The greater the challenge, the more I can push myself to excel. One can't hone a blade without grit, after all."

Beside her, Gaius also stepped forward.

"Let's make it three," Gaius added. "Considering how far I came to attend this school, it'd be silly to back down before I've even started."

"Well, it looks like we've got our country's strongest freshman onboard, and out foreign exchange student too," Sara said happily. "Any more takers?"

Emma stepped forward. "Allow me to take part as well. I was only able to come because of the school's generosity, so I feel it's my duty to help in any way I can."

Elliot stepped forward as well. "S-Sign me up too!" he spoke with a tinge of hesitance, but a tinge of determination could be found in there too. "I kinda feel like fate brought is here for a reason, y'know? And you all seem pretty easy to get along with." he said while scratching his cheek sheepishly.

"So that's a yes from out two orbal staff testers. Though I feel compelled to remind you… your weapons are still in the prototype stage, so on top of your other work, I'll be expecting reports from both of you!" Sara added the little tidbit at the end, enjoying how Elliot's face fell.

"Heh… of course," Emma smiled beatifically while Elliot seemed to slump over.

"Guh…" Elliot groaned. "Maybe I spoke too soon."

Next to Rean, Alisa and Xeron looked at each other for a moment before nodding.

They both stepped forward.

"Let me join too…" Alisa said.

Xeron raised a hand in a small mock salute "Same here."

"Oh? There's a surprise." Sara said looking at Alisa. "I was almost certain your rebellious streak would see you opt-out just on general principle."

"It does bother me that you've got us using these ARCUS units that are still pretty clearly in development… but if I let every little nit-pick like that hold me back, I'd never amount to much." Alisa's eyes closed as she calmly explained her reasoning.

"Haha, words to live by right there," Sara laughed before turning to Xeron. "And what about you? Do you have any special reasoning for accepting?" she asked.

Xeron shrugged without a care. "Same reason basically, I keep myself up-to-date with the Reinford group so finding out a bunch of first-years are using fifth-generation prototype battle orbments have piqued my curiosity. Don't even get me started about how much the Combat Links interest me."

"Go figures, smartypants is here for the geeky stuff," Sara deadpanned with half-lidded eyes.

"Well, that and the fact it seems like mixing nobles and commoners seems like a pretty solid concept. So, if I can help ease that, I'm all for it." Xeron added.

"That sounds so much better than just because you want to geek out over the latest tech," Sara grinned. "That brings us up to seven, how about you Fie?" she asked the small silver-haired girl catching her by surprise.

"Don't care either way. You can choose," she said uncaringly.

Sara shook her head. "Uh-uh, not this time. This is one call you're gonna have to make or yourself. That was the deal, remember? You need to take control of your own life."

The lime-eyed girl shook her head in exhaustion. "Fine, I'm in," she said stepping forward.

Those who had stepped forward all sweatdropped at how reluctant the diminutive girl seemed.

Sara let out a sigh. "Weeeell, at least you committed. That brings us to an even eight… she said before looking at both Machias and Jusis, neither having said anything, "…which leaves just the two of you."

The two gave silent grunts, the refusing to even acknowledge each other.

Sara noticing this, decided to address the two. "I can see you've got issues with each other, but that doesn't mean you can't at least TRY to work together," she spoke to the two. "Why, if you just look past your differences and embrace the joys of youth, I'm sure you'll become the best of friends!"

"LIKE HELL WE WILL!" Machias yelled. "The exploitation of the common people by the aristocracy is a blight of every facet of Erebonian life! Unless something is done about it, this country has no future!"

Sara seemed to deflate. "…I appreciate your candor, but I don't think you're going to achieve much lecturing me about it."

"Well, at least that makes this simple," Jusis suddenly spoke as he stepped forward. "I, Jusis Albarea, claim my place as a member of Class VII," he said much to everyone's surprise.

"…Huh?" Rean let out, surprised by the rather sudden acceptance.

"Wh-Why?!" Machias asked confused. "You're the son of a duke! Just the thought of being in the same class as commoners should make you sick! Xeron Rogner is at least seems mildly tolerable but you're on a completely different level!"

"I'll thank you not to tell me how I'm supposed to feel. As far as the house of Albarea is concerned, there's little difference between other nobles and commoners. Besides, this should at least ensure I won't have fools flitting about every day trying to win my favor." Jusis glared at Machias before his eyes drifter over to Xeron who gave a nonchalant wave. "And do not compare me to Heir Rogner, we are our own people."

Machias was taken aback, gulping loudly as he was stared down by the son of Albarea.

"That said, I have little interest I getting drawn into your petty arguments on a daily basis either," Jusis stared down Machias. "I believe it would be prudent for us to go our separate ways. I'm certain we can at least agree on this, no?"

"I don't need some pompous ass who coasts through life on his father's coattails telling me what to do!" Machias felt differently, evident by his subsequent outburst. Machias stepped forward as well, "I'm in, come hell or high water! You might have had your successes spoon-fed to you up to now, but no outmoded class system is going to hand you trophies anymore!" Machias glared at Jusis.

"Hmph…" Jusis humphed, "We'll see about that."

The two glared at each other, Machias visibly coiling as if he was raring to get into a fistfight with the blonde noble. Emma stood uncomfortably trying her level best to ignore the two beside her while the rest aside from Fie sweatdropped at the two teens' actions.

Rean couldn't help but sigh. "They're going to be like this pretty much all year, aren't they?" he whispered down to Alisa beside him.

The red-eyed girl nodded. "Sure, seems that way. I wouldn't bet on them ever seeing eye to eye."

The two stopped, realizing exactly who they were talking to.

With a hmph, Alisa turned around with her nose in the air.

"Oh…" Rean slumped over defeated.

"Aww… you two were going so well. Alisa had a full sentence and everything going. Keep this up and I'm sure by the end of the year the two of you will actually be able to have a conversation." Xeron teased the two, earning him a sharp elbow to the ribs. "Ow! I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" he laughed earning him another jab.

"Haha…" Elliot laughed in agreement. "The pots shouldn't be too hard on the kettles."

Rean looked over at his red-haired friend. "Give a guy a break…" he pleaded to no avail.

"Well, how about that! Ten for ten!" meanwhile, Sara clapped her hands happily. "With that, I'd like to congratulate all of you in being the first-ever Class VII!" she cheered.

"I hope you keep those high spirits all year, 'cause with the workload we've got planned for you, you'll need it!" Sara said with peppy cheer.

* * *

**Well shit… 12K words, this was a goddamn monster of a chapter. It took my around 3 days with breaks to get it written, along with cross-referencing with the game to make sure the dialogue is fluid. Even then I'm hesitant to call it fluid.**

**But yay! The prologue is done!**

**Read, review and all the jazz and I'll see how fast I can get the next chapter out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Let's see how far I can go with this chapter! **

**We've finally hit the first chapter in-game, people! Also, no one can say to me that Rean cannot just absolutely devour a feast in seconds. It's not like I've made a ton of food with the DLC ingredients and then have him devour it one after the other when I'm low on EP and healing items.**

**Also, for those looking for By the Will of the Goddess. Just letting you know that my update schedule is honestly just whichever of these two fics holds my interest for longer. So, it'll be a pretty irregular update pattern for each. Currently, ToFaS holds my attention for the vast majority of the time.**

**Also, does anyone know what Arge would be in modern measurement systems? I've been thinking it's feet but can anyone tell me?**

* * *

It had been seventeen days, two and a half weeks since the start of the school semester, and Rean was still only just getting into the swing of things.

When Instructor Sara had said that things were going to be tough for Class VII, she certainly wasn't joking. Worse was that apparently, they'd yet to reach the worst there was to offer. There were still mystery events that she kept hinting at that were waiting for the class as the days progressed.

Rean gave himself one last look in the mirror of his room, checking that his uniform was correct. "All right…" Rean nodded and turned around, giving a cursory glance at the photo of the Schwarzer family before shaking his head. "Time to get going," he said to himself as he left his room, closing the door behind him.

"Oh, Rean!" a familiar voice called out, causing him to look over to find that it was Elliot.

"Morning, Elliot." Rean greeted. After the events of the old-schoolhouse the two, along with Gaius Worzel had become quick friends.

"Heh, good morning," Elliot smiled warmly. "Are you heading to school now too? How about we go together?" he offered.

"Sure," Rean accepted. "It's getting late, though, so we might need to pick up the pace a little."

"No problem," Elliot nodded while withdrawing a small lumpy thing from his bag wrapped in napkins. "Also, here, you haven't had breakfast yet, right? This is the last of the leftovers from this morning. Instructor Sara tried to take it, but Xeron set it aside for you."

"It's been over two weeks, but I still don't think I'll ever get used to the fact he cooks for us," Rean said as the two descended the stairs, accepting the leftovers and unwrapping it to find an omelette and steak sandwich.

* * *

To explain, let's rewind a bit.

When Class VII had been shown to their dormitory to the south of Trista after their orienteering exercise, right next to the Train Station, nearly everyone was dead tired. Some such as Elliot and Alisa were having trouble staying awake, exhausted from the physically demanding day they'd had, and it was some sort of miracle the Emma wasn't in the same boat as them.

"So… we get a dorm to just the ten of us?" Emma asked as she looked up at the dormitory, a steel plaque with the words "Thors Military Academy - Third Dormitory".

"Well, almost. Eleven actually since I'll be staying here as well," Instructor Sara answered cheerily, grabbing a pair of keys from her long coat and opening the doors of the dormitory with a satisfying click.

"Well, welcome to your new him ladies and gentlemen of Class VII," Sara announced as everyone was ushered in. "Since this is a co-ed dorm, you lot will have to get used to seeing each other a lot over the next year. Of course, the only reason why I'm here is that the school doesn't want what any of you trying to get frisky with each other just because there's no adult supervision." she gave a half-lidded smoky glance to each of the teens eliciting a few blushes and stammers as she did so.

"Everyone's luggage has already been moved in so all you lot need to do is fight over which rooms you want! Anything goes so long as no fatal injuries and nothing that can't be swept under the rug. I don't need any more paperwork than I already have." she said, earning her MANY concerned looks.

"I don't know how in the world you're our instructor…" Alisa murmured in exhaustion, swaying dead on her feet. The only reason why she hadn't fallen over yet was that Xeron was holding her upright by the back of her collar.

Rean had to agree with her though, there was no way someone like Instructor Sara should even be allowed remotely close to Thors.

"Well, the second floor is for the boys, and the third floor is for the girls," Sara happily ignored the blonde-haired girl. "If you need me, my room is just over there," she pointed to a room beside the rows of mailboxes. Stacked outside the doorway were crates upon crates of bottles, and judging by their labelling, some of them were of the highly alcoholic variety.

Rean looked closer. Actually, it seemed like all of them were of the alcoholic variety he realised, with some being beer while others seemed like they'd be better off starting campfires.

Meanwhile, everyone gave the rest of the floor a look-around. Aside from Sara's room, there was a second bedroom on the first floor, two couches and a table; presumably, a coffee lounge, and a set of double-doors open revealing what seemed like a dining room and a kitchen.

"A kitchen?" Laura noted as she stepped closer, eyeing the room. "Do we happen to have someone that shall cook for us?"

"Ha! Thors is an amazing campus, but you're all expected to look after yourself," Sara replied with a laugh. "I hope you all can cook because don't expect me to do any cooking, I live off alcohol and take-out," she said with a proud smile.

_'That's not something to be proud about…'_ was the general consensus among the younger people in the new dormitory.

"I don't suppose any of you know how to cook, do you?" Sara asked, looking around only to receive several either blank or embarrassed stares in return. "Seriously? None of you knows how to cook? I thought you all were self-sufficient or something."

"We're students, not weeds, Sara," the youngest of the class deadpanned monotonously.

"I can give it a go if you want?" an unexpected voice spoke up.

Rean couldn't really say he was all to surprise, to be honest though. With how much the purple-haired teen was proving to be quite the unexpected individual, it was sort of becoming ordinary, even in the past twelve hours, that he'd do something surprising. So much so it was starting to become un-surprising.

"Huh," Sara let out surprised. "I wasn't actually expecting anyone to take me up on that. I really thought all of you were like me and didn't know how to cook to save their lives. Speaking of which," she looked over at Xeron questioningly, "do you actually know how to cook or are you going to be burning down our brand-spanking-new dorm?"

The purple-haired teen shrugged. "I've gotten some training from a maid back in Roer, just don't expect anything too spectacular though."

Rean didn't even know where to begin with that statement, and it seemed he wasn't the only one.

"A… maid taught you how to cook…" Jusis looked curiously at his fellow noble in both interest and disappointment. "Unbelievable…"

It was hard to tell if he'd meant that in a good way or bad way. The green-haired reformist son of Class VII didn't even bother trying to hide his disdain at Jusis' words. "What? Is it so unbelievable that someone would bother to learn beneath a common-maid? Does it offend your oh-so-noble sensibilities?!"

Rean groaned, more so when Jusis gave a snarky comeback. "Perhaps, but I find it entertaining that you've completely ignored the fact that it's a Noble that has learnt beneath a 'common-maid' as you so delicately put it. I would assume one such as yourself would be preening at the mere mention of something such as that, even if the deed had nothing to do with yourself."

"Why you smarmy little-" Machias growled but was cut off as Rean laid a hand on his shoulder.

"That's enough Machias, none of us wants a repeat of the old-schoolhouse," Rean spoke calmly, the green-haired teen almost vibrating in anger beneath his hand. "And Jusis, I've said it before, but you're better than that. We're all tired and exhausted, I'm sure the two of you have better things to do than being at each other's throats."

The two teens glared at each other, Machias angrily while Jusis seemed more as if the whole thing were a chore he'd rather not have been taking part in. Eventually, the two relented and turned away with a huff.

CLAP.

Sara clapped her hands together. "Now that our resident peacemaker had calmed down our two spirited justice-warriors, why don't you all get your rooms sorted while our new dorm cook starts on dinner."

"I don't know if I like being the peacemaker," Rean murmured earning him a chuckle and a wry grin from Elliot and Gaius respectively.

As everyone began to make their way upstairs, Alisa and Elliot ambling like the undead with needed assistance from Laura and Gaius, Rean could faintly make out Xeron and Sara talking.

"I don't ever recall agreeing to be the dorm cook? Only that I'd give it a go."

"Well, you're the only one here that can cook. It's either that or everyone starves," Sara replied with what Rean could imagine being a nonchalant shrug. Whatever else they ended up talking about he couldn't make out as he reached the second floor of the dorms.

* * *

Elliot chuckled. "No kidding! To think one of the heirs of the four great houses would be our dorm cook? Imagine if word got out!"

"There'd be words definitely…" Rean murmured as he took a bite of the hearty sandwich, the egg and tender steak delicious as a morning meal between the two slices of wholegrain. "I'll say though he's definitely more than a decent cook. Without him, I'm pretty sure we'd be trying to scrape together whatever we could to buy meals at Kirsche's, and meals there aren't cheap."

"Yeah, we really lucked out didn't we," Elliot grinned. "And from what Gaius has told me, he's been bribing Machias with cups of coffee in the morning so that he doesn't try and start fights with him. Of course, that doesn't really extend to Jusis."

"I can imagine. Machias and Jusis are like oil and water, it'd be a nightmare if Xeron was involved as well," Rean shook his head as he polished off the rest of his sandwich in record time, at the same time the two finished descending the stairs. "Though I'm not sure what Xeron would even do. I've never seen him mad like Machias or even respond anything like Jusis."

The two stopped their conversation, however, as they noticed two others standing by the entrance of the dorms.

"Ah…" Rean uttered out awkwardly as he caught sight of Emma, Xeron, and Alisa, the latter crossing her arms glaring at Rean as the two boys approached.

"Mmph…" Alisa glared.

"Good morning," Emma bowed in greeting as she noticed the two approaching.

Xeron gave the two a half-hearted wave in lieu of greeting, seemingly more bust in holding back a yawn than providing a proper greeting.

"Y-Yeah, good morning." Rean stutter in reply before giving a thankful nod to the purple-haired boy. "Thank you for the meal, it was delicious."

"No worries."

"Oh yes, it was a wonderful breakfast, wasn't it?" Emma agreed.

"Morning!" Elliot chirped with a smile, "Are you three on your way to school?"

"Y-Yeah," Alisa replied, "Come on, Emma. Xeron. We're going to be late." she said quickly, eyes shifting away from their position of glaring at Rean as she turned around and left.

"H-Hey, wait for me, Alisa!" Emma called out after her before turning around apologetically. "We'll see you in class," she said quickly before running off after Alisa.

And that left three.

"If you two could just kiss and make-up or something, that'd be great," Xeron said while biting back the urge to yawn again. "It's a pain having to deal with her when she's like this. She's stubborn as hell, so get onto that would you?" he complained before also turning around and leaving the dormitory, a backward-wave sent their way as he departed.

Rean didn't know whether to sigh or blush. He settled for sighing while trying to hide the blush that grew.

"I never would've guessed she'd hold a grudge THIS long." Elliot tried to comfort his friend to little success. "She knows it was just an accident, right? She has to! I'm actually sort of amazed by how… sensitive, I guess she is?"

"No kidding." Rean righted himself, face clear. "She's not even giving me the chance to apologize either. Maybe, Xeron was right about her being stubborn."

"Hey, at least he seems to be on your side!" Elliot pointed out. "Imagine if it was the two of them against you."

"Ha… something tells me if that were the case, there's not a chance by Aidios I'd still be alive," Rean shot back with nervous laughter, the admitted thought of the two of them teaming up just sounded like a bad idea in general, much less for his health.

"Yeah, but I'm sure she'll come around and understand… eventually…" Elliot said. "Class VII's got enough tension as it is, what with our two… erm… um… prideful warriors…. at each other's throats. As Xeron said, it'd be a load off everyone's mind if you and Alisa could make up, at least… or… you know…" Elliot trailed, red dusting his cheeks as he averted his eyes slightly.

Rean looked at him in confusion.

What was Ellio-

Oh.

OH.

"Not you too!" Rean complained as his face turned into a blazing inferno of red.

Elliot frantically waved his hands in front of himself in defence. "I k-know! I'm sorry! But with Xeron constantly saying it, it's starting to become a bit hard not to imagine!"

Rean had no way to even respond to that, so instead, he decided it may have been a better course of action to leave this conversation where it belonged.

Stored away in the depths of his memories where it would never, ever be brought back up again.

* * *

"Stand… Bow…" Emma ordered kindly as was her duty as Class President. Everyone in Class VII did so.

"Be seated…"

Once more, everyone followed.

History was one of Thors more universally loved/hated classes with no middle-ground. The reason for this wasn't because of the content itself. Well, actually that's a lie, the material could sometimes be a pain, but the reason behind Thors History Class' love/hate status was due to its teacher, Instructor Thomas Lysander.

Appearance-wise, Thomas Lysander was someone that if someone that didn't know him looked at him and was told to describe him in one word, the most common answer a person would give would most likely be "Professor" or "Bookworm". With dark brown pants, a green vest with golden embroidery, a white collared long-sleeve shirt and an orange cravat along with thick opaque wireless glasses, the description was certainly an apt one.

For Xeron, he'd gladly admit he liked Instructor Thomas Lysander as a person but absolutely hated him as an Instructor. The man certainly knew his history, able to explain in great detail about any historical event known to mankind. However, if you got him talking, he could speak for hours unless stopped. Thankfully, he was somewhat limited during class times, but with a man such a Thomas Lysander, he'd work with what he was given.

"As I'm sure you're all well aware, the Erebonian Empire was driven to the brink of collapse roughly 250 years ago. This was brought about by a conflict we've come to call, the "War of the Lions"—a conflict civil was lasting several years, staged for the throne of the late emperor, Emperor Varius V, by the most powerful of his potential successors, his children- of course, that's not here nor there," Instructor Thomas said with a bright smile.

"Instead, I'd like to discuss the effects this had on the Empire as members of the aristocracy were drawn into the war," he continued. "Many hired mercenaries turned to looting and pillaging, and a similar trend could even be seen amongst some of the knights. The land was utterly devastated, and morale was at an all-time low. But then, lo and behold, into this nightmare, stepped a man. A man willing to take a stand against this bloody war of succession."

Xeron did have to admit, the man could make a history lecture sounds like a fantastical tale. Not an achievement he could say for most people.

"He was a wandering prince who began to rally forces from the outskirts of the Empire, and would go on to make quite a name for himself. And that name, of course… was Dreichels Reise Arnor." the instructor gave a slight pause. "He would later become better known as 'Dreichels the Lionheart' – the 73rd Emperor of Erebonia, and Father of the Renaissance, not to mention the founder of Thors itself."

"Dreichels' army was initially rather small in number. However, as he travelled across the Empire, winning over the hearts of influential sympathisers, his forces rapidly increased. Now, the place where Emperor Driechels first began gathering his army was…" Instructor Thomas trailed off, eyes wandering the students of Class VII.

Xeron could see the moment Thomas' eyes locked on someone behind him, behind his opaque glasses' eyes lighting up in a small amount of glee.

"…Rean Schwarzer. Would you care to tell the class?" Instructor Thomas singled out the black-haired teen.

"It was the Nord Highlands, a region in the northeast of Erebonia," Xeron heard the black-haired boy reply.

_'Roer. North-East. Eisengarde Range. Zender Gate. 3rd Armoured Division.'_

The words quickly filtered through Xeron's mind at the mention of the Nord Highlands, associative key terms coming to the forefront of his mind before he dismissed them.

Idly out of the corner of his eye, he could see Alisa behind him to the right erasing a blur of writing that looked vaguely like 'Nord Highlands' with increased smudges.

_'Why can't you just apologize already?'_ Xeron wondered while Instructor Thomas congratulated the adopted son of Baron Teo Schwarzer. Why the boy hid his lineage was beyond him, but he felt it may have something to do with the green-haired son of the Reformist Faction's Governor's son sitting to Xeron's left.

"Excellent, Mr Schwarzer!" Thomas praised. "Prince Dreichels' wanderings led him to the land of Nord, where he lived with the nomadic vagabonds for some time. It was there when word reached him about Erebonia's ongoing civil war, and those nomadic vagabonds of Nord were the first of his stalwart allies."

"Now onto the topic of the War of the Lions itself… who here can tell me about the key influential people throughout the war?" Thomas asked before his eyes settled almost immediately on Xeron. "Mr Rogner, would you be able to answer this?"

Xeron gave an imperceptible sigh before standing up. "Yes, sir. The main figures throughout the war were Prince Orthros, Alder, Driechels, Gunnar, and Lucius in order of age, all of the Reise Arnor Family. Additionally, there was Crown Prince Manfred Reise Arnor. However, he was assassinated several days after the death of his father, Emperor Varius V, which would then instigate the War of the Lions," he answered, bored.

"Well done, Mr Rogner. However, you would be missing another person of great importance," Instructor Thomas congratulates but amended. "I shall give you a hint. This person is of great renown and joined Driechels after he first gained his first following army from Nord."

Understanding lit up in Xeron's eyes. "Would you be referring to St. Lianne Sandlot, the Lance Maiden? She and her band of knights, the Eisenritter, joined Prince Driechels after the travelled south to the town of Legram. She's the only one that I can recall that would fit your hint."

"You would be correct! Indeed, the War of the Lions was primarily instigated due to the assassination of Crown Prince Manfred with Prince Orthros vying for the Throne. The other children of Emperor Varius V sans Driechels all fought for the throne, causing a civil war to embroil the continent. And it would be Lianne Sandlot of the town of Legram, along with her knights of the Eisenritter that would become the second followers of Driechels the Lionheart." Instructor Thomas explained.

"Moving on, we'll be learning about the end of the War of the Lions and the subsequent split of power that resulted due to the deaths of all children of Emperor Varius V except for Driechels the Lionheart—" Instructor Thomas continued but was cut off by the bell signalling the end of the final period.

Ring Ring Ring!

"Oh dear, finished already?" Thomas said in a disappointment as he looked at the clock above the blackboard. "Well, since that's all we can fit in for today I'm afraid we'll have to stop here. Have a nice day, everyone!" he said quickly, shoving everything on his desk into his satchel before running out the door, his words trailing through the empty hallways of Thors.

Everyone sighed in quiet relief, some more noticeable than others as Instructor Thomas ran for the faculty office.

Light footsteps were audible from the open door as Instructor Sara walked through and made her way to the podium that Instructor Thomas had just vacated.

It seemed like it was time for Homeroom.

"Nice work, everyone. You made it through another GRUELING day of classes!" she purred out with a beaming smile.

* * *

"Nice work, everyone. You made it through another GRUELING day of classes!" Instructor Sara smiled deviously as Rean mentally groaned, the day's curriculum jam-packed into his skull.

"In case you've been living under a rock, please don't forget that tomorrow is your first 'free day'. It's not teeeeechnically a day off, but there are no classes, so it's up to you what to do with your time." Sara explained just in case some of her students had been paying attention for the past two and a half weeks.

"Why, you could go shopping in the capital if you wanted to! …Or just do what I do, and sleep all day. Sleep is so wonderful!" she said blissfully with her eyes closed. Rean figured she was getting prepared early for tomorrow.

"Um… Will the academy's facilities still be open for our use?" Emma asked curiously.

Machias agreed with Emma. "Indeed, I'd like to be able to use the free study area in the library myself."

"Of course! This school shuts down for no one, so feel free to patronize any and all facilities as you like," Instructor Sara nodded. "A lot of clubs have meets scheduled for these free days as well, so anyone who's joined one should probably check on that."

"…I see," Gaius muttered while Laura nodded to herself.

"I'll be sure to do so," Laura nodded in acceptance.

"Also, before you leave we should go over what's happening next week," Sara tacked on before anyone could even think about leaving. "On Wednesday, you all have your practical exam."

Everyone was surprised at that.

"A… practical exam…?" Rean wondered.

"What does that entail, exactly?" Alisa asked as well, this being the first time anyone in the class was told about a practical exam.

"It's part of your combat training," Sara said straight-out. "You'll be graded on your performance, so make sure you're well-rested and ready for battle by then! Might be a good idea to do some training on your own time, too, just to keep from getting rusty," she advised.

"Hmm… Interesting," Jusis hummed.

"Finally, something that isn't mind-numbingly boring," Xeron gave a small grin from his table much to Rean's confusion. From what was discussed last period it wasn't like Xeron didn't know anything, in fact, it seemed like he knew a fair bit, so why was he calling the lessons boring?

Compared to the first two, Elliot could only give a faint, weak smile. "I… definitely don't like that sound of that…" the orange-haired boy let out weakly as his brows scrunched up.

Fie yawned.

"Oh, and one more thing! After the practical exam is over, I've got another important announcement… about a major part of class VII's curriculum that I…haven't mentioned at all yet," she said slowly, a twinkling gleam of mischief in her eyes.

"Wh-What?" Machias stammered in confusion at that.

_'Here it comes…' _Rean thought, preparing himself for Wednesday.

"So! Whatever you choose to do on your free day, make it count for something!" she smiled. "Welp! That concludes today's homeroom. Machias, if you'' do the honours?" she asked clapping her hands together.

"Y-Yes, Instructor," he said before standing up. "All rise… Bow."

Everyone followed suit.

* * *

Sara could not have been out of there faster, surprisingly not ripping the door off its hinges with the speed she'd bolted out of the room.

Unfortunately, this was a somewhat common occurrence for the Homeroom of Class VII, so the action was quietly swept under the rug as nearly everyone in the classroom made to leave except for Elliot, Gaius and Rean himself.

Elliot and Gaius walked over to Rean's desk, Elliot immediately hanging his head as the three met. "I'm a little worried about that practical exam next week," Elliot moaned in distress. "I mean, I'm still just getting used to this staff…" he motioned to the folded green staff hanging by his waist, "It's still weird trying to walk without forgetting that it's there and knocking things over."

"Well, I'd be happy to help you train if you need a sparring partner. The gymnasium looks big enough that I'm sure we'd have no trouble finding a good spot for it," Rean offered before eyeing the green folded-up device, "But, you'll need to unconsciously get used to it being there, no real way around that."

"I figured as much," Elliot said defeated before smiling at Rean, "It's nice that you'd offer, but I was actually planning on attending club practice today."

"Oh, you've joined a club already?" Rean asked, surprised getting him a nod in return. "Which one did you pick?"

"I, uh… decided to try for the band. Though I'm not sure how much use they'll have for a violinist," Elliot admitted bashfully. "I'm part of the wind orchestra."

"Wow… I didn't know you played the violin," Rean said. "Did you just pick it up for fun?"

"Eheh, yeah, something like that," Elliot replied before turning to the tall, dark-skinned boy beside him. "How about you, Gaius? Have you joined any of the school's clubs?"

Gaius nodded. "I'm considering joining the art club," he said much to both Elliot's and Rean's interest.

"Art, huh? Somehow, that's not what I pictured for you. No pun intended," Rean said honestly. Truthfully there was a strange dissonance thinking about a teen as tall as Gaius painting.

Rean would admit though, with Gaius' personality, painting did suit him even if it didn't suit his appearance and physical stature.

"Do you have any artistic experience?" Elliot asked with interest.

"I've dabbled in it back home," Gaius said while crossing his arms. "I did teach myself, though, so I feel like this could be a good chance to learn proper technique."

"Wow. That's pretty cool!"

"I'd love to see some of your work sometime," Rean said with a smile before the sound of the door opening caused the three boys to turn around in surprise.

Clad in her navy long coat, yellow cocktail dress and thigh-high leather boots strode back in the infamous Instructor Sara. Seeing three of her students, she approached them casually, slinking over to them.

"Oh, good you're still here!" she said, earning her confused looks.

"Instructor?" Rean asked.

"Is there a problem?" Elliot wondered aloud.

"No, no. I was just hoping someone could do a… teensy little favour for me?" Instructor Sara asked hopefully, the way she rubbed the back of her head, not inspiring confidence. "There's something I need to be picked up from the Student Council room."

Elliot cocked his head "Something you need picked up?"

"What would that be?" Gaius asked, also curious.

It seemed, though, that Instructor Sara wouldn't be giving them even that small tidbit of information so easily. "Heh. That's for me to know, and you to find out! All I'll say is, it's something absolutely essential to your school life," Instructor Sara nodded. "And somebody needs to go get it! Though it doesn't really matter who. Any volunteers?"

Rean considered it for a moment.

"Sure, I'll go," Rean accepted surprising Elliot and Gaius. "If I show up in the Student Council room and tell them you sent me, they'll know why I'm there, right?"

"W-Wait…"

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Gaius asked, garnering him a nod in reply.

"You two have clubs you want to look at and go to, right?" Rean asked rhetorically. "I'm still totally undecided, so this shouldn't be a big deal at all. I can look in on a few clubs myself along the way, in fact!"

"Well, if you don't mind…" Elliot said more at ease compared to before.

"Thank you," Gaius thanked Rean.

"The Student Council room is in the Student Union next door, at the end of the hall on the second floor," Instructor Sara gave him the necessary directions. "It's open until quite late, so there's no rush."

Suddenly she gave him a disturbing smile "Thank you, my dear! I leave EVERYTHING in your capable hands!"

"Uhh… O-Okay…?" Rean replied unsurely. With her piece said, Instructor Sara marched off happily with a song on her breath.

Looking at his friends, Rean gave them a smile as he began to pack up his things. "I'll see you guys later?"

"Mhmm…" Gaius hummed in agreement while Elliot nodded.

"Of course, see you later Rean!"

And so, Rean began his twenty arge journey to the Student Union building.

* * *

_'So, this is the Student Union building,'_ Rean thought as he looked up to the building that was to the right of the main building and to the left of the library. _'I know the Cafeteria is on the first floor, but I wonder where the Student Council room is…'_ Rean wondered but his musings were cut short by someone.

"Hey there, first year," a carefree voice called out. Turning around, Rean found it to be a grey-haired teen, presumably a second-year wearing the green commoner's uniform with a sack slung over his shoulders. As he came closer, Rean noticed his eyes were like the colour of wine.

"U-Umm…" Rean said uncertainly, the sudden appearance of the grey-haired teen leaving him at a loss at what to say. Thankfully, the teen was more than happy to carry the conversation even in the face of such a lacklustre response.

"How's it going?" the teen asked casually with a grin. "The academy life been treating you well this past half-month?"

"Oh. Y-Yeah, it has," Rean nodded. "It's not easy, but I'm managing. Mostly. Though I have a feeling it's only going to get harder from here on out."

"Haha. Of course, it will." that caused the teen to give out a small chuckle. "Your class is going to be more intense than the others, too. But you just hang in there, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Rean said, even more unsure at the teen's words. "Umm… wait. You're a second-year student, aren't you? Do you mind if I ask your name?" Rean asked out of courtesy.

"Hey now, let's not get ahead of ourselves," the teen said taking Rean aback slightly. "First things first, how about you let me show you this trick I've been practising?"

"Trick…?" Rean asked.

"Hmm… you got a fifty mira coin I can borrow?" the teen asked suddenly.

"I-I think so…" Rean said before digging through the inside of his blazer pocket and withdrawing a fifty mira coin and handing it to the teen.

"Cheers," the teen smiled and took the coin before setting his sack down. "All right, watch closely," he said before flicking it up in the air.

Rean watched closely as it fell before the teen swiped with both of his hands.

"Now! Which hand is the coin in? Left or right?" he asked.

"It's in your right hand," Rean replied, confident in his answer.

"Too bad!" the teen grinned. He opened his right hand to reveal that there was nothing to be seen.

"Guess you win…" Rean admitted. "I'm usually pretty good at following moving objects, too…" Rean stopped for a moment, "Wait. You said this was a trick… which means…"

"You catch on quick," the teen noted as he opened his other hand to show that it was also empty. "Haha… keep up the good work, man," the teen chuckled with his hands on his hips.

"You're gonna need to be pretty tough to get through a year with Sara as your instructor…" the teen advised as he picked his sack back up and slung it over his back. "…Oh, and the Student Council room is on the second floor. Furthest room back. See you around. Have a good weekend," he gave his cheery farewell before trundling off into the direction of the main entrance.

As the teen walked off, Rean realised something. "Wait, my fifty mira…" he muttered before clutching himself as he realised he'd effectively been conned.

_'Man, he got me…'_ Rean thought as he hung his head, _'And he seemed to know I was heading to the Student Council room, too… somehow. Guy's good.'_ Looking at the second-years back Rean couldn't help but wonder.

_'I haven't met many of the second years yet. I wonder if they're all like… that,' _he wondered but shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the Student Union building. _'Oh well. At least I know where I'm going.'_

* * *

Xeron watched from the rooftop of the main building as Rean entered the Student Union. "That friend of yours… is he always slinging a bag around just to con us first-years?" he asked the leather-clad second-year female.

The girl wore a black leather skin-tight jumpsuit with a thick brown leather belt secured around her waist and silver-trimmed leather boots. With purple-magenta hair the same shade as Xeron's, it was more than evident that they were siblings with the only thing differentiating them being their gender and the colour of their eyes. While Xeron's was a shade of magenta like his hair, the girl's eyes were the colour of aquamarines which complemented her hair cut short.

"Ha! If he could Crow would probably bring it everywhere with him, but someone would probably catch on eventually," the girl gave out a bark of laughter. "Nah, those have some of the spare orbal bike parts that he's keeping away. George says with some of the spare parts we have, one day we might be able to make a second orbal bike."

Xeron shook his head, the image of a purple monstrosity of a bike popping into his head. "Count me out if it'll be anything like yours. I remember back in Roer when it was still barely out of its developmental phases, and I almost shattered my hip bones trying to ride it," he recounted. "I will never understand how you've managed to tame that thing."

"Aww, is little Ronnie afraid of a bike?" the girl cooed mockingly but somehow also endearingly. "Don't worry, your big sis will make sure the big scary bike doesn't hurt you… ha!" she shouted as she suddenly caught him in a headlock, rubbing her knuckles against his skull.

"Agh! Angelica! Angel, stop it!" Xeron complained as his sister continued to rub her knuckles against his skull, leaving it sore and messing up his hair. Eventually, though she relented, causing Xeron to sigh in relief.

Looking up at Angelica, Xeron saw he grinning down at him with her hands on her hips. "Come on, this is the first time we've caught up since last year! Smile a little!" she ordered with a tomboyish grin.

Xeron huffed while crossing his arms. "I smile, just not when my skull's being used as a noogie-board."

Angelica smiled before suddenly leaning in a grabbing him in for a hug, surprising the slightly taller purple-haired teen. "Wha-?"

"Really, though it's good to see you again," Angelica said as she hugged him tighter.

Xeron softened as he reciprocated the hug. "Yeah, it's good to see you again as well," he muttered before the two let each other go.

"How's father been treating you?" Angelica asked as she leaned back onto the rooftop's railings. "He hasn't been too hard on you has he?"

Xeron sighed a bit before leaning back on the railing adjacent to hers. "I'm still being tasked to sort out the issues with the provincial army, so nothing's really changed on that end, and father's still the same as ever. Ostensibly stubborn and prideful to a fault, just like you," he said while giving his sister a pointed stare to which she turned away.

"Aside from that, I'm now handling the reports that are sent to him from House Hyarm and Cayenne, along with dealing with issues in Southerland and Lamare in addition to Nortia. Father's slowly shifting me the workload of the head of house onto me," Xeron said as he crossed his arms and leaned into the railing.

Angelica's head shot up as she looked at him in worry. "What?! That's a crazy amount of work, are you sure you're up for it? Especially on top of your studies?"

"It's not a matter of whether I'm up for it, but whether I'm willing," Xeron responded. "Sure, it's a lot, but at the end of the day, I'm helping people and sorting out problems for the common folk. Whether I'm capable for the task doesn't matter, it's whether I'm willing. Buuut, I'm both capable and willing, so it doesn't really matter."

"And your studies?" Angelica asked pointedly.

"I'm coming third, tied with Duke Albarea's second son, Jusis," Xeron replied with a shrug but rubbed the back of his head. "Emma and Machias, our Class President and Vice-President, are both ahead of us barely but they're both quite intelligent. Emma almost scarily so at times."

Angelica breathed out a sigh of relief. "Good, at least you're still balancing your workload. I know you're special and all but can't Marquis Hyarm and Duke Cayenne give you a break? I mean with how much work you have and school, how much sleep do you even get?"

"Marquis Hyarm is a good man, but he can only do so much with his first son gallivanting off to Liberl and his second son being in the Imperial University, and it's not like he can give it to his third since he's hereat Thors as well," Xeron explained.

"Duke Cayenne, on the other hand, has the Lamare Province to take care of with needing to take care of Ordis, Raquel, and Bryonia Island along with the Dnieper and Ober Gate. Never mind the smaller towns along with the Juno Naval Fortress. There's so much that he's stretched thin even with the help of Count Egret." he continued to explain but noticed the look his sister was giving him.

"Yes, I'm still getting enough sleep. As much as I usually do anyways," he rolled his eyes, earning him a huff.

"As long as you take care of yourself, I'll stay out of the Noble business," Angelica said, a gladdened look being sent her way.

"That's all I ask. There's no need for you to involve yourself. I may be the Spare, but that doesn't mean I won't give my best to help our citizens, including you." Xeron looks at her.

"You've got to take care of yourself; otherwise you won't be able to take care of your 'citizens', yeah?" Angelica chided him, a slim finger bopping him on the nose causing him to chuckle cross-eyed. "Otherwise, as your sister, I will step in. Understood?"

"Crystal," Xeron grinned.

"Good…" Angelica lowered her hand with a happy smile on her face. "Not give me the details about the girls in your class. Are you cozying up to any of them? Some of them are real beauties, especially that busty pinkette and the serious blue-haired girl," she asked with no shame.

"Ugh… I'm not you. I'm not cozying up to any of the girls in my class," Xeron denied but stopped for a moment causing Angelica to lean forward in interest.

"Huh? I'm sensing a juicy 'but' here," she urged him to continue.

Xeron looked at her considering if he should tell her before deciding to do it. "Well, you know that guy in my class your friend conned?"

"The one Crow conned with his bag trick? Yeah, what about him?"

"Alisa's crushing on him hard."

"WHAT?!"

Unnoticed by the two, a pair of lime-green eyes that have been watching the two the whole time and listening all the while decided that perhaps now may have been a good time to leave. Fie had been up on the rooftop long before Xeron, and his surprise sister had arrived and had been on the opposite side of the door, hidden from view.

Giving one more glance at the two siblings, Angelica pushing for more information as Xeron acquiesced, she silently opened the rooftop door and left. It seems she wasn't fast enough as she caught the tail-end of Xeron's sentence.

"-fine, fine! Calm down would you, you horny lesbian! I'll tell you what I've noticed."

Fie was wholly unsure what to do with that piece of information.

* * *

Rean sighed as he exited the Student Union building. Today had certainly been one of far too many surprises.

First, was finding out that Towa, the girl he'd met before the entrance ceremony, was a second-year and the Student Council President at that. The second surprise being that surprise! Instructor Sara had signed him up behind his back to help out the Student Council with their work, more specifically, to ease some of Towa's already seemingly large workload. The last surprise had been that Towa was the one to compile all of their student notebooks.

At least Towa had been kind enough to treat him to dinner at the cafeteria after she'd given him the basic summary of what to expect for the coming free day. The food was good, but Rean was starting to think that maybe Xeron was spoiling Class VII with his cooking.

Looking up he noticed the dark night sky. When he'd first entered it had barely been 3 o'clock, the time when classes finished. "Dusk already?" he murmured to himself before letting out another sigh, "What a day… Still can't believe she wound up treating me to dinner in the cafeteria."

"And she's still got more Student Council work to do yet! How is she so busy?!" Rean almost shouted the thought that someone like her was taking care of such a ludicrous amount of work.

Ring! Ring!

Rean noticed a small buzzing coming from his pocket along with a strange ringtone. Digging through his pocket and pulling out the object revealed it to be his ARCUS. Flipping it open he answered the call. "Umm… Hello, this is Rean Schwarzer speaking," he tentatively greeted.

"_Guten Tag, my favourite little Wunderkind!"_ Sara's familiar voice called out from his Arcus. _"I hear you had a nice little dinner date with the student council president. Ooh la la!"_ she teased to Rean's disgruntlement.

"If this is how you treat you 'favourite little Wunderkind,' I dread to think how you'd treat people you don't like…" Rean replied. "Would you care to explain why you've been signing me up for things behind my back?" he asked in slight annoyance.

"_I'll skip the details for now but it's got something to do with the other part of your curriculum that I'll be announcing next week,"_ Sara responded mysteriously. _"I thought it'd be a good chance for one of you to do a little rehearsal before the main event. And since the Student Council truly is busy, I figured, why not kill two birds with one stone? A fine plan, if I do say so myself."_

If Rean were looking at the woman right now, he would've been giving her the most disbelieving stare he could possibly muster. Unfortunately, since she was calling him across his ARCUS, he settled for putting as much pointedness in his tone as possible "I have a feeling half the reason they're as busy is because of certain instructors… but fine. I'll play this little game of yours," Rean accepted the unspoken request.

"Basically, you just want me to spend my free day tomorrow helping the Student Council, right?" he asked.

"Oh, that's entirely up to you," Instructor Sara responded, her words surprising Rean. "If there's a club you're interested in joining, far be it from me to force you away from it!"

"No, to be honest, I still haven't found one that clicks with me, so that won't be a problem," Rean replied, "There is one question I'd like to ask, though."

"Why me, exactly?"

"…"

"This seems like the kind of task typically entrusted to the class president or vice-president. So, Emma, or Machias…" Rean continued, "And even if you were choosing based on social class, Jusis, Laura, and Xeron are all far better choices. They were all born into noble families. I wasn't."

Rean asked once more "So what makes me so special, exactly?"

"_Heh…"_ Instructor Sara gave a small laugh. _"Well, in a sense, you're effectively at the centre of Class VII."_

"…Pardon?"

"I'm not saying you're its leader, of course," she amended, _"But in a class full of nobles, commoners, and exchange students, you in particular are… 'special'. Surely even you can see that, no?"_

"Well…" Rean muttered, knowing that somehow, she was right. At the end of everything, he was effectively the 'core' of Class VII's social-class dynamics.

"_That's why I decided to give you… 'first dibs', so to speak. I wanted to get an idea of how things might go from here on out. There's never been a class like yours before, after all," _Instructor Sara clarified. _"So, there you have it. The beans have been spilled aaaaall over the place. Ball's in your court now."_

"…"

"_*gulp gulp gulp gulp*"_

"Wait, what are you drinking?" Rean asked as the sounded of gulping came from the ARCUS.

"_Beer, of course,"_ she said as if he should've known, _"It's the weekend, and I'm stuck wasting away in my room, imbibing libations – Alas! – all by my lonesome. If only I had a classy gentlemen friend who'd go out drinking with me. But, woe of woes, such a man is nary to be found!"_

"_You're drinking in the middle of the dining hall, not your room,"_ a voice that definitely was not Instructor Sara's reached Rean's ears causing him to look at his ARCUS in confusion. _"If you're going to lie, make sure there's no one there to call you out on it."_

"_Quite you! I'm here for the cold beer, not your sass!"_ Sara shouted back to the voice Rean was definitely familiar with.

"Xeron? Is that you?" Rean asked thoroughly confused. "Why do you have beer?"

"_Yeah, he can't hear you. You're not on speaker. To answer your question, he's found a wonderful way to chill my beer with one of his quartz, so as his Instructor, I've given him a training task,_" Sara's grin was almost palpable through the ARCUS.

"That's got to be an abuse of power," Rean deadpanned.

"_Eh, probably,"_ was her succinct reply_. "Anyways, back to you! Instead of trying to put everything in its place, why don't you just… go with the flow, for a change?"_ Instructor Sara asked, _"It seems like you're desperately trying to find… 'something'. But if you don't plant yourself somewhere, you're going to just blow away with the next big gust that comes along._

Rean found himself stunned at that.

"_Heh, and on that note! Make sure you're back in the dorm by curfew and all transgressions will be forgiven. Toodles~!" _she sang before hanging up with a click.

Rean just stared at his ARCUS for a moment before closing it away and stowing it back in his pocket. "If I don't plant myself somewhere, huh…?" Rean mulled over in consideration. "She might have a fair few screws loose, but she's got a point. Maybe I should just try going with the flow, and see what comes of it…"

An hour later after returning and relaxing in his room for a while, Rean decided now was the best time to hand everyone their student notebooks.

'_All right, President Towa left me in charge of handing out everyone's notebooks. Tomorrow's our first free day, so I should get this done with tonight," _Rean thought to himself.

With that in mind, his first stop was Xeron's which was right in front of his own room.

"Xeron?" Rean knocked on his door.

…

No response.

"Xeron?" Rean tried to twist the doorknob and was pleasantly surprised to find it opening. Less pleasantly surprised to find the room vacant of its owner.

"I wonder where he is?" Rean murmured before closing his eyes. As far as he could sense, there were only five other people on the second-floor meaning he wasn't on the floor.

"I guess I'll have to find him later…" he muttered before closing the door behind him and moving onto Elliot's room.

After a polite knock and a "Come in!", Rean entered to find Elliot standing in the middle of his room with a bow in one hand, and a violin in the other.

"Hey, Rean. What's up?" Elliot greeted.

"Towa gave me Class VII's student notebook to hand out earlier, so I'm just going around delivering those," Rean explained. "Here's yours," he handed Elliot's to him.

"Oooh, thanks."

"Anyway, were you playing violin in here?" he asked curiously, nodding to the pair of instruments in the orange-haired boys' hands.

"Sorta. It's pretty late, so I wasn't really playing, per se. Just doing the fingering and motions," he explained. "The Wind Orchestra isn't meeting tomorrow, so I thought I should get in some practice tonight instead."

"Wow. You're really into your music, huh?" Rean said. "I can't imagine most people being that invested in their hobbies. Your room's chock-full of musical stuff, too," he noticed as he looked around, spying the array of musical instruments on the far wall.

"Haha," Elliot laughed. "It's not that much, honestly… It would be nice if the walls in these dorms were a bit more soundproof, though. Then I'd be able to play all night without bothering anyone."

"Spoken like a true music nerd," Rean ribbed earning him a chuckle before he left Elliot's room to hand out the other notebooks.

After passing by Machias', Jusis' and Gaius' rooms to hand them their student notebooks with little fuss. As Rean moved up to the third level, he noticed he could only sense four presences as well.

Considering this was the female's level, it wasn't too much of a hazard to guess that the presences belonged to each of the girls. "Does that mean Xeron's on the ground floor?" Rean wondered as he approached one of the girl's rooms.

When Rean knocked, a voice called out and Rean just felt his stomach drop.

"Who is it?" Alisa's voice came from the other side of the door.

Rean swallowed nervously before answering. "… It's me, Rean."

"Wh-What do you want?!" she asked, sounding as if she was scrambling for something. "What are you even THINKING coming to some innocent girl's room this late at night?"

"Okay, good point…" Rean sweatdropped. "I wouldn't have under normal circumstances, but there's something I need to give you. It's your student notebook, Instructor Sara asked me to get them for everyone and I'm handing them out now," he explained.

"Oh…" was Alisa's response. "…O-Okay, wait a moment."

Rean did so, listening as her footsteps came close to the door before it swung inwards revealing Alisa in all her glory. "…Hurry up and hand it over," she said brusquely.

"Okay, just hold on a second," Rean asked as he looked through the remaining five he had left, her being the third one in the pile. "It should be this one. Let's see… 'Alisa Rei-'" he started before being cut off by the blonde-haired girl.

"DON'T READ THAT!" she shouted as she snatched the notebook from his grasp. "I-I can't let my guard down around you for a second, can I?!"

"S-Sorry…" Rean apologized feeling completely out of his depths. "I can't tell which notebook is which without looking inside… I really didn't mean any harm."

"Hmph… Or so you say…" Alisa uttered with half-lidded disbelieving eyes. "A-Anyway, that's all you wanted, isn't it? Good night, then!" she bid goodnight before slamming her door closed.

"Er…" Rean stood there for a moment in consideration of continuing to apologize but ultimately decided against it. Shaking his head, he decided to move onto the room opposite Alisa's.

Before he could knock on the door, it opened leaving Rean trying to knock against empty air.

"You and Alisa are too loud," Fie looked up at him, holding back a yawn. "I think everyone in the room heard you. Can I have the notebook?" she shot out causing Rean to reflexively hold it out.

"Cheers," she muttered as she took it before turning around. Just as she was about to close the door she stopped. "If you're looking for Xeron, he's on the first floor. He doesn't sleep." she said before her door closed.

"…" Rean was sort of stunned by how quickly that went. He hadn't even gotten the chance to get a word in before the smaller girl took her notebook and closed the door. Her words though at least answered where the tall purple-haired noble had disappeared to.

Moving onto the next room, the one beside Alisa's proved to be Emma's room. "Who is it?" Emma asked as he knocked.

"It's me, Rean."

"Ah, Rean. I'll be right there." she said before opening the door, accepting the notebook that was presented to her, "Ah, thank you. Oh, on an unrelated note, how are you planning on spending the day tomorrow?"

"I'm thinking I'll help out the Student Council," he answered honestly. "Why did you need something from me?"

Emma blushed at that. "Oh, not at all! I was just curious. I was planning on looking at some more clubs and I was wondering if you would do the same!"

Rean nodded understandingly. "I'd look but there aren't really any clubs that pique my interest."

"Oh…"

Rean recalled one of the clubs in the Student Union building that might have interested her. "Well, if you're looking for a club, I saw that there was a literature club in the second floor of the Student Union building, maybe that would be a good fit for you?" he asked earning him a beaming look of joy that blinded him from its sheer radiance.

"Really? That's wonderful! I'll give it a look tomorrow! Thank you so much!" she thanked profusely leaving Rean spellbound before she slowed down and gave him a meaningful look. "Also… I hope you'll make up with Alisa soon."

Rean let out a slight chuckle. "Haha… I'm assuming you heard us just now?"

"You weren't exactly quiet…" Emma tittered. "I think Alisa still needs to sort out her feelings about everything. But don't worry, I'm sure it'll all come around in the end."

"Thanks. I really appreciate that more than you know," It was Rean's turn to thank her. "Good night, Emma."

"Good night. Thank you for bringing me my notebook and letting me know about the literature club."

"No worries."

With that done, there were only two more remaining and only one more room with a person in it. Walking over to the room opposite Emma, Rean knocked and stood there for a moment waiting for an answer.

"…?"

"Laura… are you in there?" he asked tentatively and was pleasantly surprised to receive a response this time.

"Is that you, Rean? I'll be right there," she said before the sound of something heavy being laid to rest against something with a dull thunk. As she opened the door, Rean was surprised to see Laura without her blazer and her sleeve rolled up, beads of sweat dotting her forehead.

Shaking his head, he held out her student notebook which she gracefully accepted. "Oh! Thank you for taking the time to deliver it to me."

"Don't worry about it," Rean shook his head, "What were you doing, anyway? You didn't hear me knocking and you're covered in sweat."

"I was just practising with a wooden sword," was her reply. "I must have been so focused on my practice that I didn't hear you knocking at first."

"That's some concentration, all right…" Rean couldn't help but murmur in appreciation. "Maybe I should do some practising when I get back to my room, too…"

"Haha. You certainly don't want to neglect your training," Laura said with a small smile. "I'd enjoy it to duel with a swordsman such as yourself sometime, as well."

"Well then, I bid you good night," she said.

"Good night," Rean nodded back as she closed her door.

Rean looked at the last remaining notebook. "Then there was one."

Now that he knew where the purple-haired noble was, he decided to make way for the ground floor. Actually finding Xeron wasn't all too hard since he was sitting by the coffee lunge working on something.

As he walked closer, he noticed that Xeron was actually working on a stack of papers that he didn't recognize. "I don't recognize any of these, is this some sort of homework I wasn't told about?"

Xeron looked up at him, eyes slightly lidded. Instead of answering he reached out for a cup of tea on the coffee table and took one long sip. When he was done, he finally answered. "No… Just some family business that I need to take care of," Xeron replied before magenta eyes looked at him. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Um, yeah, here," Rean offered the final notebook.

Xeron seemed to quickly flip through it so fast it didn't even seem like he'd be able to comprehend what was in it, his eyes flittering through its pages before he snapped it shut. "Our Student Notebook? Its content differs largely compared to everyone else, is that why they took longer compared to the rest of the student body?"

"Yeah… how could you tell from just flipping through it like that?" Rean asked curiously.

"Practice…" was Xeron's response. "My apologies, but would it be alright if I return to my duties? I still have much to complete."

Rean just nodded, confused on how to respond to Xeron's strange shift in demeanour. With his part for the day done, Rean decided to finally call it a day.

He did wonder though by what Fie mean by Xeron didn't sleep.

* * *

"Done…" Xeron muttered as he finished the last of the paperwork delivered to him and packaged them for mailing back to their respective owners. Rubbing his eyes, he took note of the time.

Four in the morning.

"That's earlier than I expected," he muttered before standing up for the first time in close to ten hours and stretched, cracks and pops echoing in the quiet of the dorms ground floor as his spine uncompressed itself and released the air bubbles trapped between each bone in his vertebrae.

"Ah…" Xeron sighed in relief. Grabbing his signed paperwork and his cold cup of tea, he headed for the mailboxes, specifically the one titled for outgoing mail.

Click.

He was surprised to find that as he was walking, the front door of the dormitories opening revealing a familiar diminutive form.

"Towa?" Xeron asked as he approached. Apparently, his footsteps may have been too quiet as Towa visibly jumped and her voice caught in her throat, the stack of papers in her arms almost flying it Xeron hadn't appeared by her side and held the top, preventing them from leaving her arms.

"X-Xeron?" Towa whispered, her lime-green eyes that Xeron couldn't help but notice were similar to another diminutive girl's in Class VII, were wide with apprehension before they relaxed as they realised who he was. "What are you doing up?"

"I could ask the same to you, last I recalled this was Class VII's dormitories. It's strange to find the Student Council president in our dorms so early in the morning," Xeron shot back.

"Oh! I'm just here to drop off Rean's tasks for the day! He offered to help out the Student Council," Towa presented a bulging unmarked parcel bearing no seal. "Would you be able to tell me which one's his?"

Xeron pointed to the one at the very left of the mailbox on the top row. "201, that's his one."

As Towa moved to place Rean's tasks into his Xeron placed his own packages into the outgoing mailbox.

"Well! I'll see you later, Xeron!" Towa smiled as she finished her duty.

Xeron nodded in return with a small smile, watching as she exited the dorms, the doors closing behind her.

…

Making sure Towa wasn't going to be coming back, Xeron immediately moved to Rean's mailbox and withdrew the package. Luckily since there weren't any seals it was easy to ensure making it seemed like it was untouched. Without a measure of shame, Xeron looked inside showing there to be three separate sheaves of paper with tasks on them.

He's done much worse than looking through someone else's mail. As he scanned through them, one caught Xeron's eye.

"'Old Schoolhouse Mystery', huh…? Interesting…"

* * *

**What in the honest fuck is with this fandom? Not the people in it but the actual fandom itself? Like I'm just trying to write the from first chapter in-game till the field studies but I'm legit not going anywhere! I've barely made it to the start of the free-day and there's still so much I want to write!**

**Like the first 2k when compared to the YouTube video that I use as a reference was 3 minutes out of 77 minutes. Like wtf?!**

**And this whole chapter was only 30 mins of the whole video! At this rate, by the time I hit the second field study, I'll be at like 70k words!**

**Well with that rant done, hope you all enjoyed! Read and review, reviews help me to continue writing and provide constructive criticism. **

**Ah Rean, the fucking moron he is in the face of women. The classic trope that works wonderfully in this series.**

**I'm going to flip a coin now and see whether I'll be starting a chapter for By the Will of the Goddess or Trails of Fists and Steel.**

**Heads = By the Will of the Goddess**

**Tails = Trails of Fists and Steel**

**Flips coin***

**Heads! By the Will of the Goddess shall be updated next!**

**And yes, I did flip a coin. I'm an indecisive fuck and cannot be counted on to make decisions otherwise I would have totally written another chapter for Trails of Fists and Steel. Also means I'll actually be forced to think up a storyline for By the Will of the Goddess.**


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